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CYCLOPAEDIA 



OF 



Political Science, Political Economy and United States History. 



EDITED B Y JOHN J. LALOR. 



Now complete in three Volumes. Supplementary to all other Oyclopx- 
dias, and a rival of none. Each article signed by its tvriter. 



DISTINGUISHED COMMENDATION. 

I have had them (tlic vohimes of the Cycloprerlia) long 
enough to prize them highly and to use them "almost daily for 
reference. The work shows patient research and the most 
felicitous arrangement. I regard it as a model. It cannot fail 
to have great popularity. JAMES G. BLAINK. 

I know of nothing of the kind more likely in the long run to 
produce a favorable result upon our National and State i)olitic.s. 

ANDREW D. WHITE, 
President of Cornell University. 

I have looked over the Cyclopaedia pretty carefully, and it 
Beems to me one of the most important contributions to Political 
Science that has ever been made in this country The articles 
are well cho.sen and ably written. It is a book tiiat ought to be 
in every library. PROF. JOHN FISKE, 

Cambridge, Mass. 

The work seems to me judicious in its plans and objects, and 
promises to be of great utility and value. S J. TILDEN. 

I have carefully examined the volumes of the Cyclopedia of 
Political Science, and I have read several of the articles relat- 
ing to subjects with which I am acquainted, and I heartily con- 
gratulate you on the success you have achieved. Such u" book 
was much needed. The result is a Avork convenient iJi form, 
trustworthy in statement, comprehensive in scope. 

D. C. GILMAN. 
President of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 



Prospectus containing all information sent upon application. 
Volumes forwarded to any address in the United States, pre- 
luiid, upon receipt of order. 

K. H. ANDREWS & CO., PUBLISHERS, 

195 & 107 Wabash Avenue, 

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PRSCTIML MflNUflL 



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COMPILED FOR THE READY REFERENCE OF 

SOCIETIES, CONVENTIONS, PUBLIC MEET- 
INGS, AND DELIBERATIVE AND 
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 



AINSWORTH R. SPOFFORD, 

Librarian of Cong'ress. 

Editor of "The American Almanac and Treasury of Facts," 
"The Library of Choice Literature," etc. 




A. II. ANDREWS k CO., PUBLISHERS. 

Chicago, III. 

1884. 






Entered according to act of Congress, Jnly 24, 1884, by 

A. H. ANDREWS & CO., 

in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



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Cramer, Aikens & Cramer, Printers. 
Milwaukee, Wis. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS, 



Page. 

Introduction 7 

CHAPTER I. Membership Q-ii 

1. Qualifications lo 

2. Credentials lo 

3 . vSenators ^^ 

4. Representatives 1 1 

5. Members of Parliament 1 1 

CHAPTER n. Organization. 12-19 

1. Calling to Order 12 

2. Election of Officers ... - 13 

3. Rules of Proceeding 14 

4. Committees ^ 5 

5. Organization of Congress 17 

6. Organization of Parliament. . - i^ 

CHAPTER HI. Sessions 20-30 

1. Daily Sessions or Meetings 21 

2. Annual or Occasional Sessions 23 

3. Sessions of Congress 23 

4. Sessions of Parliament 25 

5. Special Sessions 25 

6. Secret Sessions 26 

7. Joint Sessions 29 

CHAPTER IV. Order of Business 31-39 

1. Minutes 31 

2. Reports 32 

3. Unfinished Business 32 

4. Motions 33 

5. Debate 33 

6. Senate Order of Business 34 

7. House of Representatives 36 

8. British Parliament 38 

9. French Corps Legislatif 38 



4 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page. 
CHAPTER V. Officers 40-52 

1. President or Chairman — His Duties 40 

2. President of the Senate 43 

3. Speaker of the Hovise 44 

4. Chairman of Committee of the Whole 45 

5. Speaker of the Lords and of the Commons 46 

6. Secretary or Clerk 47 

7. Secretary of the Senate 49 

8. Clerk of the House 49 

9. Treasurer 50 

10. Sergeant-at-Arms : Doorkeeper 51 

CHAPTER VI. Committees 53-67 

1 . Functions 53 

2. Appointment 54 

3. Business and Reports 55 

4. Senate Committees 58 

5. House Committees 59 

6. Committees in Parliament 61 

7. Committee of the Whole 63 

8. Committees of Conference 65 

CHAPTER Vn. Rules 68-78 

1. Constitution — By-Laws 68 

2. Standing Rules — Senate 70 

3. Standing Rules — House 71 

4. Joint Rules 77 

5. Variations 75 

6. Parliament — Standing Orders 76 

CHAPTER VHL Questions 79-158 

1. Adjournment 82 

2. Amendments 83 

3. Appeal 88 

4. Attendance 89 

5. Bills — Private Bills 91-97 

6. Bribery 102 

7. Call of the House 104 

8. Censure 105 

9. Cloture 107 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 5 

CHAPTER VIII. Questions— Continued Page. 

10. Consent no 

1 1. Elections 1 12 

12. Expulsion 1 14 

13. Expunging 1 16 

14. Eilibustering 117 

15. Order 119 

16. Petitions 120 

1 7. Previous Question 121 

18. Privilege 125 

19. Question 133 

20. Recess 136 

21. Reconsideration 137 

22. Reports 140 

23. Reporters 143 

24. Resignation 144 

25. Resolutions. 147 

26. Riders 149 

27. Seats 151 

28. Substitute 152 

29. Table 153 

30. Vetoes 155 

31. Withdrawal 156 

32. Writ 157 

CHAPTER IX. Debate 159-170 

1. General Rules 159 

2. Limitations on Debate 160 

3. Undebatable Questions 163 

4. Senate Rules for Debate 167 

5. House Rules 165 

6. British Parliament 168 

7. French Corps Legislatif 169 

CHAPTER X. Voting 171 i88 

1. Different Methods of Voting 171 

2. When a Two-thirds Vote is Required 174 

3. Senate and House Rules 175 

4. British Parliament 177 

5. P>ench Corps Legislatif 1 78 

APPENDIX. Example of a Meeting conducted 

in accordance with Parliamentary Rules. 189-199 



Introduction. 



Rules for oi-ganization, and for the conduct of busi- 
ness, stand at the foundation of all progress in legisla- 
tion. Equally essential are they to the harmonious and 
successful transaction of the business of public meet- 
ings or voluntary assemblies of all kinds. In this coun- 
try the forum of debate is so wide, and the personal 
freedom of the citizen so absolute, that there is peculiar 
necessity for some standard of common appeal, which 
shall forward the objects of every asseml)ly, without 
undue restriction of its individual members. An unor- 
ganized assembly is a mob, and a mob without a leader. 
The object of all parliamentary rules is, or should be, 
to organize the will of the assembly into orderly action. 
While every parliamentary body has its parties, and 
almost every deliberative assembly develops marked dif- 
ferences of opinion, a firm adherence to just rules, ad- 
ministered by an impartial presiding officer, will com- 
monly insure the prevalence of the will of the majority, 
which, under free government, is assumed to be the 
supreme law. 

It is the aim of this brief Manual to combine, in a 
succinct and business-like order, those principles of par- 
liamentary law most generally recognized by the latest 
authorities on this subject. Many extensive treatises 
exist, some of which, though valuable, are so antiquated 
as to be unsafe guides. Many special Manuals contain. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

with great fullness, the rules and precedents governing 
special legislative bodies. While all these have been 
drawn upon, and the variations in practice between the 
law of the British Pai-liament and the rules now in force 
in the Congress of the United States are often stated, it 
has been the aim of the compiler to make a book of 
practical utility in the conduct of business in voluntary 
societies and public meetings. While organized associ- 
ations exist in the United States to the number of many 
thousands, in all of which a knowledge of what may be 
called well-established parliamentary rules is important, 
it is absolutely essential in State conventions [e. g. to 
frame a constitution), political conventions, ecclesiastical 
bodies (as the Presbyterian Genei-al Assembly, or the 
General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church), 
municipal councils, many incorporated associations, and 
in public meetings of a delibei'ative character. In all 
these it is of cardinal importance that the time of the 
assembly, always limited, should not be consumed by 
frivolous matters, ignorant pretenders to knowledge, or 
rambling debate, to the obstruction of the business 
which is the main object of meeting. To arrive at a 
clear expression of the will of the majority, and to 
arrive at it in the shortest time compatible with a fair 
hearing for opposing views, should be the object alike 
of the rules and of the ofificers appointed to administer 
them. Any other theory, which should give individual 
license free play in a deliberative assembly, would be 
destructive of the very objects of its organization, and 
would subordinate the rights of the majority to the 
whims or caprice of a factious minority. 



CHAPTER I. 

Membership. 

The first element important to be deter- 
mined in any organized assembly, whether leg- 
islative or deliberative, is, who are entitled to 
participate in its proceedings. This question, 
as regards the constitution of legislative bodies, 
is always fixed by law or constitution — the 
members having regular credentials being 
placed upon a roll of members, and sworn in 
as legislators. Disputed elections or contested 
seats are considered at a later period, although 
cases have arisen in Congress (notably the New 
Jersey contested election, in 1839,) in which 
the House of Representatives remained unor- 
ganized for days, by a struggle between parties 
as to which set of claimants should be admitted 
to Congress. In conventions, and other repre- 
sentative bodies of a permanent though not 
legislative character, the qualifications of dele- 
gates or members are commonly defined by the 

constitution or by-laws of the body. In less 

'J 



10 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

permanent representative bodies, or in conven- 
tions specially called, the assembly itself de- 
cides who shall be admitted to seats, unham- 
pered by the rules of former conventions of the 
same kind. Where those presenting themselves 
as members bring credentials of any kind, the 
holders are either admitted to their seats un- 
questioned, or doubtful or conflicting creden- 
tials are referred to a Committee on Credentials, 
when appointed, whose report is commonly ac- 
cepted as final by the full assembly. In some 
cases, rival claimants to seats are both admit- 
ted, with or without the right to vote ; and, 
sometimes, in political conventions, contesting 
delegations are granted half a vote to each 
member, for the sake of party harmony, and to 
avoid consuming time over bitter factional feuds. 
In more informal public gatherings and vol- 
untary assemblies, whose members bring no cre- 
dentials, the right to take part in the proceed- 
ings is assumed to belong to all present. There 
is no roll of members, and many of the rules 
which would be imperative in an organized de- 
liberative body, it would here be impossible to 
enforce. 



MEMBERSHIP. 11 

The qualifications for membership in Con- 
gress require that a Senator shall be thirty years 
of age, nine years a citizen of the United 
States, and a resident of the State wherein he 
was chosen. In the case of a Representative, 
he must be twenty-five years of age, seven 
years a citizen of the United States, and an 
inhabitant of the State in which he has been 
elected. The Clerk of the House preceding 
the one about to organize must, by law, make 
up a roll of members, placing on it those only 
whose credentials are regular. The legal dis- 
qualifications for membership are : interest in 
government contracts, holding another office, 
being a Presidential elector, or practicing in 
the Court of Claims. 

In Great Britain, any subject is qualified for 
election to the House of Commons who is 
twenty-one years of age, except peers, clergy- 
men of the Church of England, contractors, 
bankrupts, and certain officials. Members of 
the French Corps Legislatif are admitted to 
seats on a prima facie claim, the validity of 
their election being afterwards examined by 
committees. 



CHAPTER II. 

Organization. 

The first step in the organization of any as- 
sembly is for some one to call the body to 
order. In the Senate this is the duty of the 
Vice-President or of the President pro tempore. 
In the House of Representatives it is the duty 
of the Clerk of the preceding House to call the 
members to order pending the roll-call, 'the 
election of a Speaker as permanent presiding 
officer, and the swearing-in of the members 
elect. In ecclesiastical and some other con- 
ventions, the Moderator of the preceding 
convention, or the Clerk, calls to order. In 
national political conventions, this duty de- 
volves upon the Chairman of the Executive 
Committee of the party. In less formal assem- 
blies, and in all voluntary meetings, any person 
present may make the call. It is usual (though 
by no means universal) to elect a temporary 
Chairman in public assemblies of a deliberative 
character. This may be done on the motion of 

12 



ORGANIZATION. 13 

the person calling the assembly to order, or at 
his suggestion by another member, in either 
case the assembly signifying assent by voting 
aye ; or, the one calling the meeting to order 
may simply request another by name to take 
the chair. In this case, however, courtesy to 
the assembly demands that the request should 
be put hypothetically — " if there be no objec- 
tion." The motion for a temporary Chairman 
may be put either with or without a second. 
The nays, however, should be called for, and 
the motion should not be announced as pre- 
vailing unless it has received a manifest major- 
ity of voices. If adopted, the person selected 
is to take the chair at once. It is usual at this 
stage for the temporary Chairman (with or with- 
out a speech of thanks) to call for the nomi- 
nation of a Secretary pro tern. This motion, 
made by any one, and duly seconded, is put to 
vote and customarily adopted. This completes 
the temporary organization of the assembly. 
At this stage, or later, it is sometimes moved 
and carried that the rules for the government 
of the body be those governing the House of 
Representatives, wherever applicable, or a Com- 



14 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

mittee on Rules may be appointed on motion of 
any member that such committee be nominated 
by the Chair. This committee, after consulta- 
tion, may bring in a code of rules (the fewer 
and simpler the better) to govern the debates 
and proceedings of the body; or they may 
recommend the adoption of the rules of the 
House of Representatives, or of some Manual 
of parliamentary law. In any case, adherence 
to some systematic rules, with a firm and impar- 
tial application of them by the Chair, and a 
cheerful acquiescence in them by the assembly, 
is essential to good order, to harmony, and to 
the successful accomplishment of the business 
in hand. 

At this stage in the proceedings, or earlier, 
the Chair may state the object of the meeting, 
or may call upon some member to do it. The 
only actual business which can properly be 
transacted before a permanent organization 
would seem to be this statement of the object 
of the meeting, reading the call for its assem- 
bling, if any, or providing for the enrollment of 
a list of members to be taken by the Secretary, 
if deemed desirable. The next step, commonly, 



ORGANIZATION. 15 

is for the Chair to appoint a Committee on Ter- 
manent Organization, usually upon the motion 
of one member, seconded by another. Where, 
however, the members are a constituent body, 
the appointment of a Committee on Credentials 
is a part of the preliminary business, before 
proceeding to permanent organization. This 
committee should be appointed by the Chair on 
the motion of any one present, duly seconded 
and put to vote. 

In many, and indeed in most cases, it is 
usual for the assembly to dispense wholly with 
the double form of temporary and permanent 
organization, or else to adopt a motion that the 
temporary officers elected be continued as the 
permanent officers of the assembl}''. In all vol- 
untary assemblies, having no permanent rules 
to control their action, this is the simpler and 
the time-saving method of organization. In 
more formal bodies, the Committee on Perma- 
nent Officers should make a report with as 
little delay as possible, in order not to keep 
business waiting, no general business being in 
order until the assembly is permanently organ- 
ized. The permanent officers being reported 



16 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

by name from the chairman of the committee 
on that subject, the President pro tern, at once 
puts the questions seriatim to the assembly, 
which usually ratifies, by a viva voce vote, the 
selection of the committee. To the President 
and Secretary is sometimes added an officer 
designated as Sergeant-at-Arms or Doorkeeper, 
to preserve order, with power to appoint assist- 
ants. In still other cases, a number of Vice- 
Presidents are nominated and chosen — an hon- 
orary custom intended to give weight to the 
meeting by their names — and these gentlemen 
usually take seats on the platform. It is some- 
times tlie case that the election of permanent 
officers is required to be by ballot, when several 
candidates may be voted for, for each office ; 
but this, in the case of meetings convened for 
a temporary purpose, is very seldom proposed, 
as it may consume much time. In fact, in this 
matter, as in all others concerning the proceed- 
ings, time is of supreme importance to men 
with whom the prompt dispatch of business 
has become a rule of life. 

The permanent organization of legislative 
bodies is fixed by law or constitution, or both. 



ORGANIZATION. 17 

In the House of Representatives, a Speaker 
must be elected viva voce directly after the 
Clerk has completed the roll-call of members 
elect. Two or more candidates for the office 
of Speaker are usually nominated by their party 
friends. To elect a Speaker a majority of the 
votes cast is required, although this rule was 
suspended in the case of the protracted dead- 
lock between the Republicans and Democrats 
in the session of 1855-56, the American party 
holding the balance of power, so that no 
one of three candidates could be elected. The 
House continued unorganized for nine weeks, 
until it agreed to a resolution that a plurality of 
votes should elect, and N. P. Banks was chosen 
Speaker. The same delay in organizing the 
House occurred in the Thirty-sixth Congress, 
1859-60, when a dead-lock of two months w^as 
broken on Feb. i, i860, by the election of Mr. 
Pennington as Speaker, though the majority 
rule was not suspended. Upon the election of 
a Speaker, the Clerk declares the result, and the 
Speaker-elect is conducted to the chair by two 
of the members who were rival candidates for 
the office. The oath of office is then adminis- 



18 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

tered to him by that member who has served 
longest continuously in the House. After call- 
ing the House to order, the next business is the 
qualification of all the members by taking the 
oath to support the Constitution. This is ad- 
ministered by the Speaker, reading it from the 
book to bodies of members presenting them- 
selves in convenient numbers in front of the 
Speaker's desk. Next after the election of 
Speaker, the House chooses a Clerk by viva voce 
vote; also a Sergeant-at-Arms, Doorkeeper, 
Postmaster, and Chaplain. In the Senate of the 
United States, which, unlike the House, is a 
continuous body, not requiring a new organiza- 
tion, as to officers, every two years, the Vice- 
President calls the Senate to order, either on 
the 4th of March (if called in special session 
by the President), or the first Monday in De- 
cember. New Senators, or others who have 
been re-elected, are then sworn in, and the Sec- 
retary and other officers are either continued or 
their successors are elected, at any time, accord- 
ing to the will of the majority. 

The organization of the British Parliament 
is attended with great formality. The Lords, 



ORGANIZATION. 19 

being a permanent body, announce to the 
House of Commons that they are ready to re- 
ceive them, and request, through the Lord 
Chancellor, that they will choose their Speaker. 
The day after, the Speaker-elect appears at the 
bar of the House of Lords, at the head of the 
Commons (or as many of them as may attend), 
and makes formal claim of " all their ancient 
and undoubted rights and privileges." This is 
followed by the Queen's speech, the taking of 
the oath by all the members, and the adoption 
of an address in answer to the royal speech. 
Before these ceremonies, Parliament can pro- 
ceed with no business. 



CHAPTER III. 

Sessions. 

The term Session may denote: first, the time 
occupied by the sitting of any assembly after 
organizing for the day, until the adjournment ; 
or, secondly, the time spent in public business 
by a legislative assembly, from the first meet- 
ing of the members, until their adjournment to 
the next session. This time is usually several 
months. The first-named use of the term Ses- 
sion is synonymous with " meeting," or with 
" sitting." In societies, meetings are usually 
held at fixed intervals, defined in the rules or 
by resolution. These meetings are ordinarily 
closed by a simple motion of adjournment. 
This may be either " without day," or without 
qualification of any kind, and in either case 
this ends the session definitively, the assembly 
not meeting again; or, if a permanently or- 
ganized body, convening at the time fixed by 
their rules for the next regular meeting. Or, 
in the third place, adjournment may be to a 

20 



SESSIONS. 21 

future time specified. When an assembly meets 
several days consecutively, and adjourns, hav- 
ing completed the objects of convening it, the 
meetings all constitute one session, although 
embracing several sittings. Instead of a regu- 
lar adjournment, a recess is often taken by an 
assembly, this term being equivalent to an in- 
termission. 

Some societies have fixed hours both for 
beginning and closing their meetings. This is 
business-like, and conducive to efficient con- 
densation of speech and action on the part of 
the members. 

In Congress, the daily sessions of Senate 
and House have been for many years begun at 
12 M., except during the later stages of an an- 
nual session, when one or both Houses may 
resolve to meet at ii a. m., or in some cases 
still earlier. As most of the committee work is 
done during the forenoon hours, this secures a 
fuller attendance in the House. The length of 
the daily sittings varies greatly, from a few 
minutes each day in the early part of the ses- 
sion, before committee business is prepared, to 
many hours in the busier season, often extend- 



22 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

ing (with an interval of recess for dinner, at 5 
or 6 p. M.) far into the night. 

The legislative day begins on the meeting of 
the House or Senate, and terminates with the 
adjournment, but does not always coincide with 
the day as marked by the calendar. Thus, the 
legislative day which concludes the session of 
Congress in the alternate years is styled March 
3d in the journals and Record, although it is 
actually March 4, from the hour of midnight, 
to 12 M. of this day which terminates the exist- 
ence of a Congress. Although its sittings are 
almost invariably confined to week-days, Con- 
gress does not necessarily adjourn at the begin- 
ning of Sunday; a majority may continue in 
session after that hour (as has frequently hap- 
pened in the pressure of business), but the 
journal bears the date of the day preceding — 
Saturday. 

In the British Parliament no less than four 
Sunday meetings of that body, occasioned by 
the demise of the sovereign, have occurred, 
and on several occasions of great political in- 
terest or excitement, the debate in the Lords or 
the Commons has been prolonged into Sunday 
morning. 



SESSIONS. 23 

An annual session of Congress is required 
by the Constitution, although that body may 
meet more frequently, either on its own motion 
(by adjourning to meet on a day fixed), or 
when summoned in special session by the Pres- 
ident. The beginning of the session is consti- 
tutionally fixed as the first Monday in Decem- 
ber, unless Congress by law appoints a different 
day. The annual session must terminate on 
the 4th of March, at noon, in every alternate 
year — /, <?., the odd years, 1885, 1887, etc. — 
when the term of a Congress expires. In the 
even years, when this limitation does not exist, 
the session continues from five to nine months. 
There are great disadvantages connected with 
these irregular annual sessions of Congress. 
Conspicuous among these is the fact that there 
is an interregnum of nine months occurring 
each alternate year, extending from March 4 to 
the first Monday in December, during which 
Congress is unorganized, and without power to 
organize by its own motion. Secondly, there 
is no Speaker of the House of Representatives 
for the same long period, while, by existing 
law, this officer may be re(|uired to assume the 



24 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

office of President of the United States in a 
certain event. Thirdly, the entire legislative 
business of the nation is necessarily crowded 
every other year into about sixty days (exclusive 
of the holiday vacation, Sundays, etc.), with 
most pernicious results to the character of the 
legislation. Fourthly (and, perhaps, most im- 
portant) the members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, elected as they are under this sys- 
tem more than one year before they can take 
their seats in Congress, do not represent the 
popular will as if freshly sent from the people. 
The suggestion has been made that all these 
difficulties might be removed, and adequate 
and proper time for legislation secured every 
year by newly - elected Representatives, were 
each Congress required to be organized (as are 
nearly all of the State Legislatures) early in 
January following the November in which its 
members were elected. The political year 
might begin, like the calendar year, January 
I, and Congress would find adequate time for 
maturing its legislation, instead of being subject 
to the hasty and half-considered methods which 
now sometimes prevail. 



SESSIONS. 25 

Congress may be constitutionally convened 
at any time when not in session, " on extraor- 
dinary occasions, by proclamation of the Pres- 
ident" — a power which has been exercised no less 
than twelve times since the beginning of the gov- 
ernment in 1789. These special sessions have 
been called : ( i ) after the death of the President ; 
(2) on occasions of commercial distress which 
appeared to demand fiscal legislation ; (3) to 
meet emergencies in time of war, as in the war 
, of 181 2-15, and the civil war of 186 1 ; (4) to 
enact necessary appropriation laws which had 
been lost by disagreement between the two 
Houses in the Congress just expired. 

The President is also clothed by the Consti- 
tution with the power to adjourn both Houses 
of Congress to such time as he shall think 
proper, in case of disagreement between them 
as to the time of adjournment (Art. 2, Sec. 3), 
but this prerogative has never yet been exer- 
cised. 

In the British Parliament, which, like Con- 
gress, must meet annually, the sessions custom- 
arily last from February to August. Short 
special sessions are also held when public 



26 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

emergency demands. The daily sessions cus- 
tomarily begin at 4 o'clock p. m. and frequent- 
ly continue far into the night. 

Secret Sessions. 

In all parliamentary bodies the power to 
order that certain meetings for the considera- 
tion of executive business shall be secret, is 
regarded as the privilege of the body. This is, 
of course, subject to any provision in the law or 
constitution governing the body that all ses- , 
sions shall be open, as is the universal rule reg- 
ulating courts of justice. In the United States 
Senate, sessions for the consideration of exec- 
utive business are held with closed doors. Ex- 
ecutive business includes the consideration, with 
a view to confirmation or rejection, of nomina- 
tions to office made by the President, and the 
ratification or rejection of proposed treaties 
with foreign powers. It may also include the 
consideration of any measure, the discussion of 
which it is not deemed prudent, for reasons of 
State, to make public. The latest instance of 
such secret sessions was when the Senate de- 
bated, in 1884, the proposed amendment to 



SESSIONS. 27 

the consular and diplomatic appropriation bill, 
placing the sum of $250,000 at the disposal of 
the Executive to negotiate the purchase of 
an isthmus canal-franchise through Nicaragua. 
An executive session may be moved by any 
Senator at any stage of the open or legislative 
session, though they are more frequently held 
near the close of the day. If the motion that the 
Senate proceed to the consideration of executive 
business has a majority, the Senate chamber is 
cleared of all persons except certain clerks and 
assistants sworn to secrecy. The Senate rules 
require that all remarks, votes and proceedings 
in executive session shall be kept secret until 
the Senate shall, by resolution, take off the 
injunction of secrecy. Any Senator disclosing 
such secret proceedings is liable to expulsion 
from the body, and any oflficer of the Senate 
divulging these secrets is liable to dismissal and 
to punishment for contempt. Notwithstanding 
these stringent provisions of the rules, custom 
appears to have established the prompt publi- 
cation (often, doubtless, inaccurate in details) of 
the votes and even the purport of the speeches 
in secret sessions of the Senate. Nominations 



28 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

to office in executive session are first referred 
to committees. It requires unanimous consent 
to confirm any nomination on the day it is re- 
ceived or reported fi-om a committee. No ex- 
tract from the executive journal cari be given out 
without a special order of the Senate. A ma- 
jority of Senators present is sufficient to confirm 
any nomination. The ratification of a treaty 
requires the concurrence of two-thirds of the 
Senators present; so also does a motion to 
postpone a treaty indefinitely; but all other 
questions, amendments, etc., upon a treaty are 
decided by a majority vote. 

Up to the second session of the Third Con- 
gress (November, 1794,) all the sessions of the 
Senate, legislative as well as executive, were held 
with closed doors. At that time the Senate 
ordered that the legislative session should be 
open to the public, a rule ever since main- 
tained, although it is in the power of a major- 
ity of the Senate, at any time, to order it other- 
wise. 

The 30th rule of the House of Representa- 
tives also authorizes secret sessions to receive 
confidential communications from the Presi- 



SESSIONS. 29 

dent, or whenever the Speaker or any member 
shall inform the House that he has communi- 
cations which he believes ought to be kept 
secret for the present; and by the 2d rule, the 
elective officers of that body must be sworn to 
keep the secrets of the House. But no session 
of the House of Representatives has, in fact, 
been made secret for many years. Instances 
of such sessions occurred during the war of 
1812-15 with Great Britain, and during the 
Mexican war. 

In the British Parliament the presumption 
of law is that none but the members can be 
present, yet there are always a limited number 
of spectators in each House, unless (as seldom 
happens) a member moves, and the House 
orders, the exclusion of strangers during some 
discussion which it is deemed expedient to keep 
secret. Orders are sometimes made for the 
withdrawal of strangers, but this does not ex- 
tend to the ladies' gallery, which is not sup- 
posed to be within the House. 

Joint Sessions. 

Both Houses of Congress are required by 
the Constitution to meet together when the 



30 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

votes for President and Vice-President are 
counted. This may or may not l)e a joint con- 
vention, and may be held in the hall of the 
House of Representatives or elsewhere, as the 
two Houses may determine by rule or resolu- 
tion. There is no instance of a meeting of the 
Senate and House in one body, except for this 
purpose, and for occasional funeral or other cer- 
emonials where no business is done. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Order of Business. 

After the permanent organization of any 
assembly is effected, the most important ques- 
tion immediately arising, is the order of pro- 
cedure. In the case of a convention, a com- 
mittee usually reports an Order of Business, 
which is adhered to, unless the assembly other- 
wise determine. In a society, or continuing 
body, the first business in order usually is the 
reading of the minutes of the last meeting, by 
the Secretary. The Chair then calls for any 
suggested corrections or amendments to the 
minutes, or announces, in the absence of such 
motion, that they will be considered as approved. 
The next business of a society or assembly 
holding stated meetings usually is, to receive 
the reports of any committees, whether stand- 
ing or special (the former being first in order), 
or of the Secretary or other officer or board of 
ofticers to whom has been committed the trans- 
action of any business, or the consideration of 
:j1 



32 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

any subject which may require report to the 
whole body. It is usual to move that a report 
be accepted, and this preliminary motion is one 
of courtesy, bringing it formally before the 
body, but not equivalent to adopting or ap- 
proving it finally. On the contrary, such re- 
ports are open to discussion, the Chair usually 
saying : "Are there any remarks upon this re- 
port?" Sometimes the debate leads to amend- 
ments being offered to some details of the re- 
port, or to the proposing of a substitute chang- 
ing its entire tenor. The Chair takes the ques- 
tion upon the motion that the report be adopted 
(or amended, as the case may be, this being 
first in order), and announces the decision of 
the body according to the majority vote. 
Sometimes a report may be recommitted, with 
instructions to alter its tenor. 

After the disposition of any reports, it is 
usual to take up the unfinished busmess or mat- 
ters postponed from a previous session ; and 
after that, any new business may be brought 
before the assembly, either by the Chair (who 
may have communications, memorials, etc., to 
present), or by the motion of any member. 



ORDER OF BUSINESS. 33 

In all well- organized assemblies, no one can 
address the Chair or take up the time of the 
members, unless there be a formal motion before 
the body. If speeches are attempted in this 
irregular manner, it is the duty of the Chair to 
inform the speaker that there is no question 
before the assembly, and that he is out of order. 
He must then take his seat, unless he has a 
motion to present. It sometimes happens in 
large assemblies, which are apt to be rather 
tumultuous bodies, that one or more vociferous 
members will insist on being heard out of order, 
and the only course to be pursued by a compe- 
tent presiding officer is to insist upon and en- 
force the strict parliamentary rule that all busi- 
ness and debate shall be proceeded with in 
order. If this is done firmly and good-humor- 
edly on the first occasion of interruption to 
orderly proceeding, the Chair will rarely have 
occasion to interpose again, or to have his au- 
thority (as sometimes happens) supplemented 
by the vociferous calls of the majority to silence 
some otherwise irrepressible member. 

In Congress the Order of Business is pre- 
scribed by the standing rules adopted and 



34 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

amended from time to time by each House. 
The standing rules of the Senate, as largely 
changed and simplified in 1884, embrace forty 
rules. The first business in order daily (after 
prayer by the Chaplain) is reading the journal 
of the preceding day. This can not be dis- 
pensed with unless by unanimous consent ; any 
mistake in the journal may then be corrected, 
on motion. Next, the President must lay before 
the Senate Presidential messages, and reports 
and communications from heads of depart- 
ments, or other sources ; also, bills and other 
messages from the House of Representatives. 
It is then in order for Senators to present : 
(i) petitions and memorials for reference ; (2) 
reports of committees ; (3) bills and resolutions. 
These several classes of business occupy what 
is called the morning hour, and until it is con- 
cluded, no motion can be entertained by the 
Chair, unless by unanimous consent. At the 
conclusion of the morning business, the calen- 
dar of bills and resolutions is to be proceeded 
with until 2 p. m., unless otherwise ordered; 
bills not objected to are taken up in their order, 
each Senator being entitled to speak once only 



ORDER OF BUSINESS. 35 

for five minutes on any question. At 2 o'clock, 
or earlier, tf consideration of bills not objected 
to on the calendar is completed, special orders 
come up. If there be no special order, the 
calendar of general orders or unfinished business 
is proceeded with, occupying usually the re- 
mainder of the session. This order, however, 
yields to the following motions, if carried by a 
majority vote: (i) to proceed to the considera- 
tion of executive business ; (2) to take up a 
revenue or appropriation bill ; (3) to proceed to 
consider any other bill on the calendar ; (4) to 
pass over the pending subject (which leaves it 
in its place for after-consideration); (5) to place 
the pending subject at the foot of the calendar. 
All these motions must be decided without de- 
bate. Special orders may be made at any time 
for a future day by a two-thirds vote ; and they 
take precedence of all except the unfinished 
business of the preceding day, when the time 
fixed for their consideration-'arrives. Messages 
from the President or the House may be re- 
ceived during any proceeding, except while 
the Senate is dividing, or the journal is being 
read, or a question of order or adjournment is 



36 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

pending. Reports of Committees of Confer- 
ence have the same privilege. All reports of 
committees as well as bills or resolutions offered 
by individual Senators, must lie over one day, 
unless otherwise directed by unanimous consent. 
Bills and resolutions reported by committees are 
to be placed on the calendar in their order. 

The rules of the House of Representatives 
differ in many respects from those of the Sen- 
ate, and much more time is there consumed in 
the raising, discussion and decision of points of 
order. The prescribed Order of Business in 
the House is: (i) prayer by the Chaplain; (2) 
reading of the journal of the last day's sitting; 
(3) the calling of the various committees, in 
their order, to present reports. To this, what 
is called the morning hour is devoted, except 
on Mondays, when bills and resolutions are 
presented, through a regular call of States, in 
alphabetical order; (4) the unfinished busi- 
ness of the preceding session; (5) motions to 
proceed to business on the Speaker's table ; 

(6) motions to go into Committee of the Whole 
House upon revenue or appropriation bills; 

(7) business on the House calendar, embracing 



ORDER OF BUSINESS. 37 

all public bills, except appropriation and rev- 
enue measures. The above order, however, is 
always subject to the privileged bills reported 
by the Committees of Ways and Means, Appro- 
priations, Elections, Printing, Enrolled Bills, 
and Accounts. 

Owing to the large number of Representa- 
tives 610 w 325 members, besides eight Terri- 
torial delegates), and to the enormous quan- 
tity of bills and resolutions offered, there is a 
slender chance for the consideration of the 
greater part of the legislation proposed to the 
House. Hence, comes a continual contest 
over the Order of Business, whenever bills hav- 
ing precedence from privileged committees are 
not under consideration. It requires a two- 
thirds majority to suspend the rules prescribing 
the regular Order of Business. As no motion 
to suspend the rules can be made, except on 
the first and third Monday of each month, and 
during the last six days of the session, this ma- 
jority is rarely obtained. Special orders are, 
however, occasionally made in advance for 
given days by the requisite two-thirds vote. 
These special orders take precedence of all 



38 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

business, except revenue and appropriation 
bills, and the unfinished business of the day 
preceding. Questions of the priority of busi- 
ness must, under the rules, be decided by a 
majority, without debate. While any measure 
may be considered, by unanimous consent, this 
consent is comparatively rarely obtained. 

In Parliament the Order of Business is regu- 
lated by appointing certain days to consider 
the orders of the day, and other days for orig- 
inal motions. To determine the order of offer- 
ing the latter, the Speaker draws the names of 
members from a box ; if present, they then rise 
and make their motions, without debate. Spe- 
cial orders are often appointed in advance. 
Government orders (/. <?., supply bills and other 
measures of the Ministry), are privileged on 
every order day except Wednesday, and on 
Friday the permanent order of the day is either 
bills of supply or ways and means. Every 
Wednesday is devoted to bills offered by mem- 
bers of the House not connected with the Min- 
istry, unless overruled by pressing public busi- 
ness. 

In the French Chamber of Deputies the Order 



ORDER OF BUSINESS. 39 

of Business for the next session is fixed by the 
body each day before adjourning, and this order 
is posted in tlie hall and published every morn- 
ing in the Journal Offlciel. This is an obvious 
advantage. 



CHAPTER V. 

Officers. 

To THE officers of an assembly, whether 
formally elected in pursuance of law or consti- 
tution, or more informally chosen for the pur- 
poses of a single meeting, belongs much power 
and corresponding responsibility. Upon their 
competence, impartiality, and knowledge of par- 
liamentary law depend, in a large degree, the 
good order of the assembly, and the success- 
ful accomplishment of the business for which 
it is convened. 

The presiding officer of every assembly is 
variously designated as the President, the Chair- 
man, the Speaker, or the Moderator (the latter 
in some ecclesiastical bodies). While in legis- 
lative bodies the powers and duties of the pre- 
siding officer are closely defined by law or by 
the rules of the body, there is far more latitude 
allowed in less formal assemblies. Although the 
presiding officer is the head and to some extent 
the voice of the assembly, it should always be 
borne in mind that he is not the master but the 

40 



OFFICF.RS. 41 

servant of the body which has elevated him to 
the Chair, The highest function of a good 
presiding officer is to ascertain and to carry 
into effect the will of the assembly over which 
he presides. At the same time, his decisions 
are to be respected by all, unless in plain con- 
flict with justice or well-recognized parliament- 
ary rules. His service is best performed by pre- 
serving an even temper, a bearing toward the 
members of mingled dignity and urbanity, a 
prompt decision of questions of precedence 
and order, and a close attention to debate, the 
firm maintenance of order and the rights of the 
minority as well as of the majority, and an im- 
partial adherence to such parliamentary law as 
is held to govern the body. It is the correlative 
duty of the members to support the presiding 
officer by orderly and respectful behavior, and 
to treat him as the implicit organ of the as- 
sembly, entitled, by their assent in electing him, 
to control the course of business and debate, 
and to be the arbiter between opposing views 
upon all questions as to the proper conduct of 
the proceedings. 

The presiding' officer should stand when 

(2) 



42 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

addressing the assembly, hearing or putting 
motions, taking votes, or deciding any question. 
During debate, the reading of reports or min- 
utes, and at other times, he should occupy the 
chair. In smaller or more informal meetings 
(as of committees, societies, boards of mana- 
gers, etc.,) the Chairman commonly sits through 
the whole proceedings. When a member ad- 
dresses the Chair, he should always say, "J/r. 
President,'' or "J/r. Chairman;'' and it is 
usual, though not obligatory, for the Chairman 
to recognize him by name or (in conventions) 

as "77/<? gentleman from ." The presiding 

officer and not the assembly is to be addressed 
by all speakers. He may check irrelevant dis- 
cussion by confining debate to the subject be- 
fore the body. In deciding points of order, he 
may give his reasons or not, at his pleasure. The 
proper form, when he rules out the point of 
order, is : " The Chair overrules the point of 
order ;" when he admits it: " The point of order 
is well taken," or " The Chair sustains the point 
of order." 

The place of the presiding officer, in case of 
his absence, is filled by a Vice-President or a 



OFFICERS. 43 

President pro tempore, in case such an officer 
exists ; if not, the assembly elects a temporary- 
Chairman. The Chair has the right to call 
another member to take his place, if he desires 
to participate in debate ; but it is better, for ob- 
vious reasons, that he should avoid anything like 
partisanship. The Chair has the right to vote 
in all cases of ballot, like other members, but in 
voting by division of the assembly, or by ayes 
and noes, he can vote only in case of a tie. 

In the Senate of the United States, the 
Constitution makes the Vice-President the pre- 
siding officer. In his absence, a President pro 
tempore must be chosen. In either case, the 
presiding officer has the right to name any Sen- 
ator to perform the duties of the Chair, but 
this substitution cannot extend beyond an ad- 
journment. He may decide questions of order, 
subject to appeal to the Senate ; or, at his option, 
he may submit any question of order for the 
decision of the Senate. Pie has no power to 
appoint standing committees, but appoints com- 
mittees of conference between the two Houses, 
on motion and concurrence of the body, and is 



44 PARLIAMEx\TARY RULES. 

usually authorized by the Senate to fill vacan- 
cies in the regular committees. 

In the House of Representatives, the pre- 
siding officer is called the Speaker, a term de- 
rived from the British Parliament. The name 
imports that he is the mouthpiece or organ of 
the body, and is to announce its will. His 
salary is $8,000, while that of other members 
of the House is $5,000. The duties of the 
Speaker, as laid down in the rules of the 
House of Representatives, involve the exercise 
of very great powers. He appoints the chair- 
men and members of all standing and select 
committees, preserves order and decorum in 
the House, states all questions, decides points 
of order, recognizes or declines to recognize 
members to speak or to offer motions, en- 
forces the rules, signs all acts, resolutions arid 
processes of tlie House, appoints its official 
reporters and the stenographers of commit- 
tees, and has general control of the hall of the 
House, etc. The Speaker is not required to 
vote except in certain cases of a tie, or when 
a vote is taken by ballot. He has always the 
right, however, to vote as a Representative, but 



OFFICERS. 45 

seldom exercises it except on very important 
questions. The Speaker may appoint any 
member to perform the duties of the Chair pro 
ienipore (which power is Hmited to ten days), 
but if absent without having made such ap- 
pointment, the House must elect a Speaker /r^ 
tempore^ who is addressed as ^'■Mr. Speaker.'^ 
The Speaker may call any member to preside 
when leaving the chair temporarily, and this 
member is addressed as " A/r. ChainiiajiV When 
the House goes into the Committee of the 
Whole, the Speaker designates a member to 
preside, relinquishing his seat, and this member 
is addressed as "yI/>. Chairman.'''' When, by 
motion and vote, the Committee of the Whole 
agree to rise (which means, simply, reconvert- 
ing the body into the House without leaving 
their seats), the Speaker resumes the chair, and 
the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole 
formally reports to him what business has been 
under consideration, and whether any action or 
conclusion has been reached thereon. 

The Speaker uses a gavel in rapping the 
House to order. The mace, which is brought 
in and placed at the Speaker's right on the 



46 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

assembling of the House, is the time-honored 
emblem of popular sovereignty as represented 
in the Legislature. There is no mace in the 
Senate nor in the House of Lords. The mace 
used in the House is in the form of a carved 
and gilded block about three feet high, repre- 
senting the Roman fasces, with ebony base, 
silver bands and spears, topped by a globe of 
silver bearing an eagle with half-spread wings. 
When the House is in Committee of the Whole 
the mace is removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms. 
In Parliament the Speaker of the House of 
Lords is the Lord High Chancellor. He has 
no casting vote, and if the Lords are evenly 
divided the question is lost. He may leave the 
chair and speak in his character of a peer. 
The Speaker of the House of Commons is 
elected by the members at the beginning of 
each new Parliament. He wears a full-bot- 
tomed wig and black silk robes, and enters the 
House of Commons with much ceremony, pre- 
ceded by the mace, and followed by a Train- 
bearer, Chaplain and Secretary. The Speaker 
cannot participate in debate, but has the cast- 



OFFICERS. 47 

ing vote in case of a tie in the House of Com- 
mons. 

Next in importance to the presiding officer 
of any assembly is the recording officer, known 
as the Secretary or Clerk. It is his function to 
keep the record of proceedings, minutes or 
journal. This he commonly reads, by direction 
of the presiding officer, at the meeting next 
succeeding that which it covers. The Secre- 
tary's minutes should embrace every motion or 
resolution (with names of the movers) with the 
action thereon, whether adopted, amended, re- 
jected or otherwise disposed of; also, the names 
of the presiding officer and Secretary, time and 
place of meeting, etc. In societies, these min- 
utes sometimes embrace, also, a record of mem- 
bers present, or participating in discussion, or 
reading papers. The Secretary is the custodian 
of all record books and papers of the assembly, 
and should keep an order of business, with a 
list of all committees, reports, adjournments, 
votes, orders, elections, etc. In permanent 
societies, whether literary, scientific or charita- 
ble, and in ecclesiastical bodies, it is customary 
to have both a Recordmg Secretary and a Cor- 



48 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

responding Secretary, the latter to conduct 
communications with other organizations or 
individuals. In conventions, and some other 
public meetings, it is usual to appoint one or 
more assistant Secretaries, or a stenographer, so 
that a full record, or sometimes a vei^batwi 
report may be kept for publication. 

The Secretary of any body should not incor- 
porate in his minutes any opinions or criticisms, 
laudatory or otherwise, as to the discussions 
or papers read ; he is not there as a censor or 
judge of merit, but as a simple recorder of 
things done. Any statement in the minutes, if 
deemed erroneous, may be questioned by any 
- member, and, on motion, changed by the assem- 
bly. The Secretary is to read all papers called for 
(except the contributions of individual mem- 
bers, or reports, which may be read by the au- 
thor or the chairman of the committee report- 
ing them), call the roll of members when re- 
quired, collect ballots, aid the President in his 
duties, issue notices of meetings, announce- 
ments to members or others, of special action, 
etc. In the absence of the President or his 
substitute, he should call the meeting to order, 



OFFICERS. 49 

and nominate, or call for nominations, of a pre- 
siding oflicer. He sliould sign the minutes, 
and certify (with the President, when required), 
to any record of the proceedings of the assem- 
bly. His records should be always open to the 
inspection of members. 

In Congress, the recording officer of the 
Senate is called the Secretary, while in the 
House he is styled the Clerk. These officers 
have responsible custody of all files of papers 
(public and private), bills, petitions, etc., which 
accumulate in the course of the business of the 
Senate and House. They must, in person or 
by their assistants, note all questions of order 
and decisions thereon; keep the journals of the 
respective Houses, and print them in well- 
indexed volumes; publicly read all bills, resolu- 
tions, motions, etc., brought before the respect- 
ive Houses; attest, by their signature (and 
sometimes by seal of the Senate or House), all 
bills, resolutions, writs, warrants and subpoenas ; 
disburse the contingent fund, and make con- 
tracts for supplies, labor, stationeiy, etc. All 
messages from one House to the other are con- 
veyed and announced I'iva voce to the presiding 



50 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

officer by this functionary or one of his assistants. 
Besides these duties, the Secretary of the Sen- 
ate is charged with paying the salaries of mem- 
bers, and calls the Senate to order, in the ab- 
sence of any presiding officer, until a President 
pro tern, is designated. The Clerk of the House 
continues in office until the organization of the 
House succeeding that which elected him. It 
is his duty to call the new House to order, call 
the roll of members, and to preside, and deter- 
mine all questions of order until a Speaker is 
elected, subject to an appeal to the House. 
His successor is chosen by viva voce vote as 
soon as the Speaker is elected. 

In most permanent societies, a Treasurer is 
an essential adjunct of the official organization. 
In small bodies the Secretary often acts as 
Treasurer also. The function of the Treasurer 
is to receive and disburse all moneys belonging 
to the society, whether as members' dues or 
otherwise, keeping account in detail in a book 
provided for the purpose. Customarily, the 
Treasurer pays out money only upon vouchers, 
attested by the President or the Secretary, or 
both. He makes an annual report of all these 



OFl'ICl'.KS. 51 

transactions, which is usuall)' audited by a com- 
mittee appointed by the Chair, and their report 
of correctness should be accepted by the soci- 
ety, thus reheving the disbursing officer of re- 
sponsibility up to a given date. 

In conventions, it is usual to appoint, in ad- 
dition to the other officers, a Sergeant-at-Arms or 
Doorkeeper, who has charge of the entrance to 
the place of meeting, and whose duty it is to 
aid the Chair at all times in preserving order, 
and to be ready to assist the members in any 
needed arrangements or communications. He 
should have the power to appoint such assist- 
ants as may be needed in order to the efficient 
discharge of these duties. 

In the Senate, the Sergeant-at-Arms is elected 
by the body, and is required to attend its sit- 
tings, to maintain order and decorum, to serve 
processes, and make arrests, when required by 
the presiding officer, and to take absent mem- 
bers into custody and bring them to the hall, 
upon a call of the House. The Sergeant-at- 
Arms of the House, besides being charged with 
all these duties, pays the salaries of the mem- 
bers. The Doorkeeper of the House is an 



52 . PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

elective officer, who has charge of the hall, its 
entrances, committee-rooms and public proper- 
ty therein, announces messages at the door of 
the House, and is responsible for the strict en- 
forcement of the rules regarding admission to 
the floor. He has the appointment of a large 
number of messengers, assistant doorkeepers 
and pages. The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate 
appoints the Doorkeeper and his assistants in 
that body. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Committees. 

The function of committees in deliberative 
assemblies is to economize time and systematize 
business. A committee brings together in a 
few presumably competent hands, the prepara- 
tion of business for the action of the whole 
body, which might otherwise consume much 
time in crude and contradictory attempts at 
discussion or expression. One or more sub- 
jects may thus be referred to one or more com- 
mittees, according to the pleasure of the body. 
In conventions it is customary to appoint : (i) a 
Committee on Permanent Officers; (2) a Com- 
mittee on Credentials or Elections; (3) a Com- 
mittee on Rules, or the Order of Business; (4) 
a Committee on Resolutions ; and such other 
committees as convenience or the objects of the 
assembly may require; e.g., on admission to 
the hall, on invitations, etc. The motion to ap- 
point a committee may come from any mem- 
ber. The Chair then puts the question : " Is it 
your pleasure that such a committee be ap- 

5iJ 



V 

54 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

pointed?" If carried, the Chair inquires: 
" How- shall the committee be appointed?" 
wheii'it is usual to move that the presiding 
officer appoint, although the motion may 
be that the Chair nominate the committee to 
the assembly, which may then confirm' or re- 
ject the nomination. If the number of wh\ch 
the committee shall consist is not stated in the 
motion, the Chair should put the question : 
"How many shall constitute the committee?" 
and it is usual to name three, five, seven or more 
as the number of members ; always an odd 
number, that they may not be evenly divided, 
and so unable to agree on a report. It is also 
usual, though by no means an invariable cus- 
tom, for the Chair to appoint the mover as chair- 
man of the committee. A small committee of 
three members is, in most cases, much better than 
a larger number, as leading to less debate and 
more prompt dispatch of business. Commit- 
tees on resolutions, however, and other com- 
mittees in large conventions, where the honor 
of selection counts for much, are usually made 
quite large; as in National conventions, one 
from each State represented. In appointing 



COMMITTEES. 55 

committees, where there are known differences 
of opinion as to matters to be considered by 
them, care should be taken to appoint members 
from all parties, while the majority of the com- 
mittee should consist of friends of the measure 
referred to them, or of the party known to be 
dominant in the assembly. 

By established custom the first person named 
on a committee is its chairman; but the com- 
mittee may think proper to elect another chair- 
man, and this right cannot be contested except 
when the law governing the assembly explicitly 
invests the presiding officer with power to ap- 
point the chairman (as in the House of Rep- 
resentatives). 

The committee being appointed, the member 
named as chairman should be furnished by the 
Secretary with a copy of the resolution of ap- 
pointment, the matter referred to them, with 
any instructions, and the names of the mem- 
bers. A majority of the committee constitutes 
a quorum. They should be convened by the 
chairman, who should state the exact business 
referred to them, reading any papers committed. 
If resolutions are referred, the committee should 



56 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

consider them in their order, amending them at 
pleasure ; or if the committee are to bring in 
resolutions of their own, it is usual for a member 
or a sub-committee to be agreed upon to draft 
them, after which the chairman may call for 
amendments ^d-r/^ //;;/. The amendments offered 
being adopted or rejected, the chairman calls 
for a vote upon the entire report. If the com- 
mittee think proper to change resolutions re- 
ferred to them, they are to report them back 
intact, with a substitute, or with their amend- 
ments proposed separately. 

If a portion of the members cannot agree 
with the majority, they may submit a minority 
report. When the business before the commit- 
tee is finished, it is usual to move that the 
chairman, or another member conversant with 
the subject, report their action to the assem- 
bly. The report is then opened to the whole 
body for discussion, in which it is not parlia- 
mentary for any one to refer to what has passed 
in committee. It is unnecessary, although 
quite frequently done, to move that a report be 
received, its reading being sufficient evidence of 
its reception. The motion to accept a report 



COMMITTEES. 57 

is equivalent to adopting it, or to agree to it as 
the sense of tlie assembly. This motion should 
never be put by the Chair until he has called 
for remarks upon the question, ^\l'len a com- 
mittee report has been made to the assembly, 
the committee becomes functus officio, unless a 
standing committee of the body. If, however, 
the report is recommitted, the committee will 
again act. When the report of a committee is 
adopted or agreed to, it becomes thereby the 
act of the assembly. In conventions or other 
assemblies, during the absence of a committee 
to prepare business, the time may be devoted 
to debate or to motions regarding other busi- 
ness. After tlie reading of a committee's re- 
port, the minority report, if any, is in order for 
presentation ; and a motion can be made to 
substitute it for the report of the committee. 

In Congress, the power and practical utility 
of committees, in giving form, to all business 
before the body, can hardly be overrated. In 
fact, so powerful are the recommendations of 
some leading committees, that it may fairly be 
said that the committees, and not Congress, 
make the laws. Congressional committees are 



58 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

of four kinds : standing committees, select or 
special committees, committees of conference, 
and committees of the whole house. A mem- 
ber may be appointed to act upon as many as 
three standing committees, or upon one only. 

In the Senate, the standing committees are 
appointed at the commencement of each Con- 
gress, and they are thirty-eight in number (in 
1884). The method of appointing members 
of committees (unlike that in the House, 
where the Speaker has uncontrolled power to 
appoint), is for a caucus of the party having a 
majority in the Senate to select, by agreement, 
the chairmen and the majority of each com- 
mittee, leaving the minority to be named by 
the caucus of the party which is in the minority 
in the Senate. The rule provides that the 
chairman of each committee shall be appointed 
by ballot in open Senate, unless otherwise or- 
dered; after which all the other members of 
the committees must be appointed by one bal- 
lot. In practice, however, the chairman of the 
caucus of the party having a majority moves 
that the rule requiring a ballot be suspended, 
and that the list of committees be constituted 



COMMITTEES. ,59 

as ill the paper submitted ; and this motion 
is, by unanimous consent, agreed to. In the 
choice of a cliairman of a standing committee, 
a majority of the whole number of votes given is 
necessary, but a pkiraHty of votes may elect the 
other members. All other committees are ap- 
pointed by plurality, and by ballot, unless oth- 
erwise ordered. Vacancies in committees are 
customarily filled by the presiding ofticer, who 
must, however, be specially authorized by the 
Senate. The Senate committees consist of dif- 
ferent numbers, varying from three to eleven 
members each. Each standing Senate com- 
mittee has a committee-room assigned to it, and 
a clerk to record its proceedings, call meet- 
ings, etc. Select committees are such as are 
appointed to consider and report upon special 
subjects not considered as permanently before 
the body. 

In the House of Representatives, the Speaker 
appoints all committees, both standing and se- 
lect, with their chairmen, for the Congress, or for 
two years. The House standing committees 
number forty -seven, three of which are joint 
committees, empowered to act with similar com- 



60 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

rnittees of the Senate. They consist of num- 
bers varying from three up to fifteen members 
each, the greater number having eleven mem- 
bers. Of late, Territorial delegates have been 
placed upon certain standing committees, with 
the same power they have in the House, to speak 
but not to vote. Select committees, ordered by 
the House from time to time to report upon spe- 
cial subjects, do not hold over the session, un- 
less specially authorized. The meetings of com- 
mittees are private, unless they prefer to admit 
spectators, but any member of Congress may at 
any time appear before them, and it is usual to 
give a hearing to the promoters of any interest 
related to the subjects before them, and such 
hearings are generally public. Each committee 
has a clerk appointed by the chairman, if the 
committee approve, and a docket or calendar 
of business. Some committees, having con- 
stantly important business, meet daily, some 
weekly, and many occasionally, or upon call of 
the chairman. The chairman of any commit- 
tee may legally administer oaths to witnesses. 
The House sometimes grants special power to 
committees to send for persons and papers, to 



COMMITTEES. 61 

sit in the recess of Congress, or in any i)art of 
the country, and to sit (hiring sessions of the 
House. All reports made by committees must 
be written, and when the rules give the com- 
mittee the right to report at any time, this in- 
volves the right to consider the matter when 
reported. Reports may be made by the chair- 
man, or by any designated member of the com- 
mittee ; and when the report is considered, the 
one making it has the right to open and close 
debate thereon. Minority reports are com- 
monly printed just after the report of the 
majority, so that they may be considered there- 
with. There is a call of the committees daily 
for reports, except on the first and third Mon- 
tlay of each month. Committees are frequent- 
ly at variance upon (questions of jurisdiction 
or proper reference of certain measures ; these 
controversies are decided by the Speaker or the 
House, on the theory that the principal sub- 
ject of the bill governs its reference. 

In the British Parliament, the only standing - 
committees are those on Accounts, Standing 
Orders, Selection, and Railway Bills; these must 
be re-appointed each session. Select commit- 



62 . PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

tees are appointed either by ballot or viva voce, 
on motion of any member naming them. 
The quorum of the committee (usually number- 
ing fifteen) is fixed by the House, and is com- 
monly three members in the Lords and five in 
the Commons. Committee sessions are usually 
open, though strangers may be excluded at any 
time, and this is done while the committee are 
deliberating. All evidence is taken in short- 
hand and printed. In 1883 ^ ^^^ rule was 
adopted in the Commons, constituting several 
"grand committees," for the purpose of giving 
thorough consideration to all important meas- 
ures before presenting them in Parliament for 
debate. This object has been well accomplished 
hitherto, increasing the working power of the 
Parliament. 

In the French Chamber of Deputies, the 
Committee on the Budget is the most impor- 
tant, having thirty- three members, charged with 
all legislation involving revenue and expendi- 
•ture. No member can be appointed to more 
than two committees. One day weekly is usu- 
ally set apart for committee work. 



C0!\rMiTrKES. 03 

Committee of the Whole. 

The Committee of the Whole House is 
formed for the consideration of some specific 
business, and is constituted of all the individ- 
ual members of the body. By the rules of the 
House of Representatives, all bills making ap- 
propriations, or relating to revenue, must first be 
considered in Committee of the Whole. When 
tlie motion is made and carried to go into Com- 
mittee of the Whole, the Speaker appoints a 
chairman to preside, and leaves the chair. 
Business is proceeded with in the order of the 
calendar, unless the House goes into committee 
on a specific bill. Speeches are limited to five 
minutes for each side on any amendment 
offered ; but pro fonna amendments (to strike 
out the last word, etc.), greatly extend this 
limit as to the number of speeches. When de- 
bate runs too long, it is not cut off by the com- 
mittee, but those in charge of the measure 
move that the committee rise ; and the Speaker 
resuming the chair, the House is asked to 
ado[)t a motion closing debate on the pending 
section. This, if carried, stops debate, but 
does not bar out other amendments. If mes- 



64 PARLIAMENTARY RUT,ES. 

sages to the House come in, or other business 
requires the immediate attention of the House, 
the committee rise, and the Speaker resumes 
the chair ; after the matter is disposed of, the 
House again resolves itself into committee. 
All divisions in Committee of the Whole are 
taken either by the sound — aye or no — or by a 
rising vote ; ©r, when these are unsatisfactory, 
by tellers. The yeas and nays cannot be called 
in committee, nor can any motions to recon- 
sider, or to lay on the table, or to order the pre- 
vious question, be made. But any member 
may reserve the right to have a separate vote in 
the House upon any clause or amendment. 
When the business under deliberation m com- 
mittee is completed, the committee rise and the 
chairman reports to the Speaker: ''The Com- 
mittee of the Whole House on the state of the 
Union, having had under consideration (such a 
subject), have directed me to report the same, 
with amendments." 

In the Senate, the body does not formally 
resolve itself into Committee of the Whole, but 
simply adopts an order that the business pend- 
ino; shall be considered " as in Committee of the 



COMMITTEES. 65 

AVhole." This is called by Mr. Jefterson a (jiiasi 
committee. Tiie rule requires all bills and joint 
resolutions to be considered first as in Commit- 
tee of the Whole, before being reported to the 
Senate ; and any amendments made in com- 
mittee must again be considered by the Senate, 
when other amendments may be proposed. 

In the British Parliament, instead of calling 
any member to the chair, the Committee of the 
Whole is presided over by the chairman of the 
Ways and Means in the House of Commons, 
and in the House of Lords by the chairman of 
committees appointed each session. The func- 
tion of committees of the whole House is delib- 
eration. All public bills, and whatever relates 
to religion, trade, revenue or money grants, are 
first considered in Committee of the Whole. 

Committees of Conference. 

C'ommittees of Conference between the two 
Houses are "appointed by the presiding officer 
of each, to adjust differences upon a measure 
which has passed both Houses, though in a 
different form. These conference committees 



66 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

embrace three members from each House, two 
of whom are of the majority party, or in favor 
of the measure. The form of moving a con- 
ference, when either House non-concurs with 
the amendments to any measure made by the 
other, is " that the House (or Senate) insist on 
its disagreement and ask for a conference." 
The opposite motion (sometimes, though rarely, 
carried) is that the House (or Senate) recede 
from its amendments, or from its disagreement, 
and agree to the amendments of the other body. 
If the conferees fail to agree, they so report to 
their respective Houses, and a new committee 
is moved, or the same is re-appointed. Three or 
four conferences, with as many committees, are 
not infrequent. The report of a Conference 
Committee must be signed by a majority of the 
committee of both Houses, and its presentation 
is always in order. The Senate rule requires 
the question on considering a conference report 
to be determined without debate. The Com- 
mittee of Conference may be instructed by a 
vote of either House, but its report cannot be 
amended or altered like those of other com- 
mittees. It is usual, after a second disagreement 



COMMITTEES. 67 

between the conferees, for them to state the 
points of disagreement in making their report. 

In Parliament, Conference Committees are 
of more formal consequence, business being 
suspended in both Houses during their sittings. 
They may be demanded by either House, to 
consider the privileges of Parliament, the course 
of proceeding, and the bills or amendments 
passed by the other. Managers are appointed 
by the Commons and by the Lords, and both 
Houses are thus brought, by deputations of their 
own members, into direct intercourse with each 
other. 

In the French legislative body, when the 
Senate and the Chamber of Deputies disagree, 
a Committee of Conference may be moved, to 
agree upon a new form of the bill in contro- 
versy. If the conference report is rejected, 
however, by the Deputies (or lower House), it 
is not in order to bring in a similar bill until 
two months have expired, unless at the initia- 
tive of the government. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Rules. 

Permanent or elective bodies are generally 
governed by systematic rules. Most societies 
have their constitutions and by-laws, either 
written or printed, which prescribe the action of 
the body, define the powers and duties of the 
officers, and settle many questions that arise, 
without recourse to parliamentary law. A con- 
stitution should be as simple and direct as possi- 
ble, and should leave no room for controversy 
as to the meaning of its various articles. It is 
usual to provide in the body of a constitution 
(by articles and sections duly numbered) for 
the organization, membership, officers, meet- 
ings, finances, etc., of the society. Every con- 
stitution should contain provision for its own 
amendment. It is customary, in order to avoid 
too great facility of change by a mere majority, 
to insert a provision that two-thirds of the 
whole number of members (or two-thirds of 
those present) shall be required to adopt 

68 



RULES. 69 

amendments to the constitution, and this only 
at regular stated meetings, after a specific 
notice. 

The by-laws following a constitution should 
embrace all necessary details, except such as 
are left to the officers, under generally recog- 
nized usages of parliamentary law. The standing 
Rules of Order of the society, such as are not to 
be changed at the will of any meeting, are em- 
bodied in the by-laws, or may form a supple- 
ment thereto. The by-laws, like the constitu- 
tion, should be amendable only by a two-thirds 
vote, after due previous notice. In framing and 
adopting a constitution and by-laws, a commit- 
tee is appomted to draft them and report at an 
adjourned meeting. When reported, the pre- 
siding officer should read each article separately, 
and call for any proposed amendments thereto ; 
after which he should take the vote — first, upon 
amendments in their order, and then upon the 
article itself. The whole having been gone 
through with, additional amendments are in 
order, after which the vote should be taken on 
the adoption of the whole constitution as 
amended. The question on amending and 



70 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

adopting the by-laws should be taken separately. 
It is usual for the members present to sign the 
constitution, and for members subsequently 
elected under its provisions to do the same. A 
provision is usually inserted for suspending the 
rules or by-laws by vote of two-thirds of the 
members present. Without such provision, the 
course of business they prescribe must be strictly 
adhered to. 

In parliamentary bodies, what are known as 
the Standing Rules are of great importance. 
They should contain, in the most clear and 
succinct form of statement, the prescribed 
method of procedure in every contingency not 
regulated by legal or constitutional provisions. 
These latter, indeed, are frequently repeated in 
the rules as adopted by a legislative body. 
The present Standing Rules of the Senate, as 
amended to March 24, 1884, are clearly set 
forth in forty rules, some of which have from 
two to five clauses. They prescribe the order 
and method of conducting business in the Sen- 
ate, and their enforcement can be suspended 
only by unanimous consent of the Senate. No 
motion to amend any rule is in order, except 



RULES. 71 

on one day's notice in writing, specifying the 
rule to be amended, and the purpose thereof. 

The Standing Rules of the House of Rep- 
resentatives received their latest thorough revis- 
ion in the year 1880. They embrace forty-five 
distinct rules, and provide that these shall be 
the rules of each Congress, unless otherwise 
ordered. To Thomas Jefferson's " Manual of 
Parliamentary Practice," first published in 180 1, 
and still made a part of every reprint of the 
House Manual, w^e are indebted for the first 
Rules of Parliamentary Law ever put into sys- 
tematic form in x^merica. These rules still gov- 
ern the House, where they are applicable 
and not inconsistent with the Standing Rules 
adopted. The standing Committee on Rules 
consists of five members, of whom the Speaker 
forms one. To them is referred all proposed 
action touching the rules or procedure of the 
body. Several struggles have occurred between 
parties, involving the appHcation or radical 
change of the rules. The last of these, in the 
Forty-seventh Congress, called out a decision 
from the Speaker that no dilatory motions to 
obstruct the adoption or amendment of rules of 



72 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

procedure could be entertained. This decision 
was rested upon the ground that, as the Con- 
stitution explicitly confers upon the House the 
right to determine its own rules, a majority of 
that body must, at all times, have the power to 
make or to alter rules, independently of the 
existing ones. 

The motion to suspend the rules is designed 
to make some business in order which would 
not be regularly so under their restrictions. 
This suspension always requires a vote of two- 
thirds of the members present. It must first 
be seconded by a majority, counted by tellers, 
if demanded, and the motion is debatable for 
half an hour only. A suspension of the rules 
can be moved in the House only upon the first 
and third Monday of each month, or else dur- 
ing the last six days of a session. 

However rigid and binding the rules gov- 
erning an assembly may be, they can always 
be suspended by unanimous consent. This is 
sometimes obtained to accomplish, without 
delay, an object greatly desired by the vast 
majority, if not by all of the body. 

The rules of the Senate provide for special 



RULES. 73 

orders to consider any subject, for which a day 
may be fixed in advance by vote of two-thirds 
of the Senators present. When 2 o'clock of 
the day arrives, unfinished business of the pre- 
ceding day takes precedence of the special 
order, AVhcn a special order is not finally dis- 
posed of on the day set for it, it resumes its 
place at the head of the calendar of special 
orders, unless it becomes unfinished business by 
adjournment. All motions to change special 
orders must be decided by the majority without 
debate. In the House, a special order can l)e 
made only by unanimous consent, or by vote 
of two-thirds, on either of the two days in each 
month when suspension of the rules is in or- 
der. In making special orders, it is usual to 
insert the proviso, " not to interfere with gen- 
eral appropriation or revenue bills." Special 
orders are frequently made for more than one 
subject, by assigning a day to a committee for 
the consideration of such business as it may 
present. When the time fixed for a special 
order arrives, it takes precedence of all other 
business until disposed of, with such exception 

as may have been reserved in the order itself. 
(3) 



74 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

An important rule of the House of Repre- 
sentatives provides that all questions regarding 
the priority of business shall be decided by a 
majority without debate. Another rule sets 
apart every Friday for the consideration of pri- 
vate business, unless two-thirds of the members 
voting determine otherwise. 

All business undisposed of at the end of 
any Congress falls with the Congress, whether 
bills, reports, or matters unagreed to between 
the two Houses. But all business undisposed 
of at the close of any session, except the final 
one, is by a rule of each House resumed, and is 
in order for action in the same manner as if no 
adjournment had taken place. The same com- 
mittees also resume control of all matters re- 
ferred to them and undisposed of at the pre- 
ceding session. Papers referred to Senate com- 
mittees must be deposited during the recess of 
Congress in the office of the Secretary of the 
Senate. There they remain among the files, 
unless the next session is one of the same Con- 
gress, in which case they are to be returned to 
the several committees to which they had pre- 
viously been referred. This last provision is a 



RULKS. 75 

Standing Rule of the Senate; in tlie House, 
papers referred to standing committees usually 
remain in the committee-rooms from the close 
of one session to the next convening of the 
same Congress, though the rule requires the 
Clerk to take custody of all such files at the 
expiration of the Congress. 

The rules of the two Houses, although hav- 
ing a certain general similarity, differ materially 
in many points regulating the conduct of busi- 
ness, (i) In the Senate, petitions and memo- 
rials are presented in open session during the 
morning hour, and publicly referred to commit- 
tees. In the House of Representatives, peti- 
tions are no longer (since 1853) presented 
publicly, but are handed to the Clerk for sucli 
reference as the member having them in charge 
endorses thereon. In either case a brief state- 
ment of the petitions and memorials is entered 
on the journal, and published daily in the Co)i- 
gressional Record. (2) Private bills have every 
Friday set apart for their consideration in the 
House, unless otherwise determined by a two- 
thirds vote ; but there is no special day for pri- 
vate bills in the Senate. (3) In the Senate, 



7G PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

bills cannot be offered without one day's notice, 
unless by unanimous consent. In the House, 
any member may offer bills without limit, but 
on Mondays only, unless unanimous consent is 
obtained. (4) Debate in the House is re- 
stricted by the rules within very narrow lines : 
first, by limiting set speeches to one hour; 
secondly, by limiting debate on amendments 
and the details of measures to five-minute 
speeches ; thirdly, by providing for the previous 
question (the effect of which is to close debate) 
being called by a majority at any time. The 
Senate has no one-hour rule, no previous ques- 
tion, and no limitation of debate, except when 
considering business on the calendar, when each 
Senator is limited to one speech and to five 
minutes only. 

In the British Parliament, the rules are known 
as Standing Orders. These are frequently re- 
vised, but continue from one Parliament to an- 
other, unless modified. These Standing Orders 
of the Lords and of the Commons, together 
with the orders for proceedings upon private 
bills, are frequently reprinted. 

In the French Chamber of Deputies, the 



RllLKS. 77 

rules are embodied in a code embracing 154 
articles. Any ciiieslion of order, or appeal to 
the rules, suspends discussion, and has i)reced- 
ence over any other business before the body. 

Joint Rules. 

Joint Rules are those which have been 
agreed to by both houses of a parliamentary 
body. They relate to the conduct of business 
between the two Houses. As early as 1790 sev- 
eral Joint Rules were adopted by the Senate and 
House, and were continued in force until the 
Forty-fourth Congress. J>y farthe most impor- 
tant of these was the 2 2d Joint Rule, regulating 
the counting of the votes for President and 
Vice-President, when the two Houses convened 
in joint session for that purpose. In January, 
1876, the majority in the two Houses being of 
opposite politics, the Senate sent to the House 
a concurrent resolution adopting as the Joint 
Rules for that session the series of such rules 
previously in force, except the 2 2d. The 
House took no action upon this, and the Sen- 
ate, shortly before the adjournment in August, 
1876, passed a resolution to notify the House 



78 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

that, as that body had not notified the Senate 
of the adoption of the Joint Rules as proposed 
by the Senate, there were no Joint Rules in force. 
This left the Presidential count unregulated by 
any joint rule, and the disputed Presidential 
election of November, 1S76, intervening. Con- 
gress passed the Electoral Commission bill 
(approved January 29, 1877), prescribing that 
the votes should be counted at the joint session 
of the two Houses, as determined by the ma- 
jority of the Electoral Commission, This, how- 
ever, prescribed the rule for that election only. 
At the next Presidential count (in February, 
188 1), the two Houses had to pass a special 
concurrent resolution regulating their meeting 
and the count of the vote, in the absence of any 
law or rule (other than the Constitution) on the 
subject. 



CI I A IT KR VIII. 

Questions. 

All business which comes before a dehbera- 
tive body or a piibHc assembly may l)e termed a 
question. To determine the sense of the as- 
sembly upon the question is the ultimate aim 
toward which all preliminary machinery, mo- 
tions, resolutions, debate, amendments, points 
of order, rulings, appeals, etc., steadily tend. 
Amid the apparently intricate heaping of rules 
upon rules, and the sad consumption of valu- 
able time upon futile points of order and con- 
tradictory discussions, it is not singular to find 
the average mind puzzled and full of uncertainty. 
What is required, but too seldom found, in the 
application of parliamentary law to the business 
in hand, is simplicity instead of intricacy, and 
an assured standard of appeal, instead of a mix- 
ture of often conflicting decisions. Hence the 
great importance of the adoption of some sys- 
tematic rules which shall govern at least the 
general course of procedure, fix the order of 

71.1 



80 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

motions, limit the latitude of debate, and con- 
duce toward a prompt if not quite satisfactory 
settlement of every controverted question 
through the decision of the Chair, or by the 
will of the majority. As no system of rules can 
alone be trusted to effect this result, without the 
constant aid of a firm, skillful and courteous 
presiding officer to enforce them, so no presid- 
ing officer, on the other hand, can forward the 
business of a large and often inharmonious 
body to a successful result, without constant re- 
liance upon some recognized code of proced- 
ure. While the decisions of the Chairman are 
always subject to the test of an appeal to the 
assembly, experience proves that time wasted 
in taking such c[uestions, obstructs the business 
of the body, and is not compensated by the 
supposed advantage of establishing a principle. 
The term Motion is used to designate every 
proposition submitted by a member of an as- 
sembly. It is a rule without an exception, that 
no one can address the Chair or the meeting 
except to make a motion of some kind, or 
to speak upon a motion of some kind already 
before the body. In ordinary assemblies, mo- 



gULSllONS. 81 

tions made by any one member are to be 
seconded by some other member before being 
voted upon ; but no second is required in Con- 
gress. Every motion must be reduced to writ- 
ing if any member demands it, and should then 
be placed in the hands of the President, who 
refers it to the Secretary after the assembly has 
come to a conclusion thereon. If a verbal or 
informal motion, the presiding officer states it 
to the assembly ; if in writing, it is read by the 
Chair, or by the Clerk. It is the duty of the 
Chair, upon stating the motion, to put the ques- 
tion: "Is there a second ? " after which he 
states that it is moved and seconded, etc., 
repeating the motion. This brings the subject 
of the motion formally before the assembly, 
and of course beyond the control of the 
mover for change, withdrawal, etc. The mo- 
tion is now open to several courses of action 
on the part of the assembly. They may choose 
to debate it; to amend it; to adopt a substitute 
for it; to refer it to a committee; to lay it upon 
the table ; to postpone it to a definite future 
time ; or, finally, to put it to vote for adoption 
or rejection. A motion which, if carried, may 



82 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

render any of these superfluous, is the motion 
to postpone indefinitely. 'Ihis motion, if made 
and seconded as soon as the main motion is 
properly before the assembly, cannot be amend- 
ed, and comes up for immediate decision. If 
carried, further consideration of the main ques- 
tion is defeated, and the original motion is lost 
and cannot be renewed. If the motion for in- 
definite postponement is lost, the original mo- 
tion becomes again the pending business. 

Adjournments. 

In every deliberative body, the motion to ad- 
journ has precedence of all others, and is not, at 
least in American usage, subject to debate nor 
amendment. It may be made at any time, al- 
though it cannot interrupt a member speaking, 
nor the House when dividing ; nor can it be 
made when a similar motion has just been 
negatived, though it is renewable after other 
business has intervened. Unfinished business, 
cut off" by an adjournment, has precedence in 
the orders of the day for the next session. The 
Constitution restrains either House of Congress 
from adjourning for more than three days to- 



QUESTIONS. 83 

gether, without the concurrence of the other. If 
the Houses should disagree as to the time of ad- 
journment, the President may, by the Constitu- 
tion, adjourn them to such time as he may think 
proper ; but this power has never been exercised. 
In the British Parliament, the motion to ad- 
journ is debatable, and it may be amended as 
to the time of adjournment. In the House 
of Commons, the Speaker must adjourn the 
House when he finds it without a quorum, if the 
fact is noted. In the French Legislative Corps, 
the President takes the sense of the Chamber, 
before each day's adjournment, as to the day 
and hour of the next meeting, as well as the 
measures to be considered. 

Amendments. 

Amendments to a motion are always in 
order, and one amendment to an amendment 
is also in order ; but no motion to amend far- 
ther than this can be -entertained. Sul)sidiary 
motions of all kinds arc subject to the general 
rule that only one (piestion can ])e considered 
at the same time. But if a dilatory motion, or 
a privileged one, or one ordering the main 



84 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

question be made, it is held to supersede 
motions to amend, as it may lead to such a 
disposition of the question as would preclude 
the necessity of amendment. There are three 
principal ways of amending a motion : by in- 
sertion of new matter, by omission, and by 
substitution. All motions to amend should be, 
like the original motion, in writing, and should 
be carefully prepared and clearly expressed. If 
rejected, the precise amendment defeated is not. 
again in order. Amendments once agreed to can 
not afterward be altered or amended. Amend- 
ment by substitution is reached by a motion to 
strike out and insert; and this motion, by the 
rule of the House of Representatives, is indi- 
visible. Amendments should be made in the 
order of sequence. When the subject-matter 
to be amended consists of several sections or 
paragraphs, it is not in order to go back and 
amend parts which have been already consid- 
ered. In the House of Representatives, mo- 
tions to amend may be withdrawn or modified 
before the previous question is ordered, but not 
afterward ; and amendments so withdrawn may 
l)e re-ofifered at a subsecjuent stage of the pro- 



QUESTIONS. 85 

ceedings. Amendments are often proposed to 
defeat a proposition, as well as to advance its 
object; and the opponents of a motion often 
attempt its defeat by moving amendments or 
riders which render it objectionable or absurd. 
Such amendments may even reverse its purport 
or intent, so that the supporters of the original 
measure will join with its opponents to defeat 
it. If an amendment to strike out is adopted, 
it is not in order to move to insert the words 
stricken out in the same place, but they may be 
moved in a subsequent place. It is an invari- 
able rule that motions to amend take preced- 
ence, and are properly considered before what 
it is proposed to amend, the question be- 
ing first taken on the amendment. The same 
rule applies to an amendment of an amend- 
ment. No amendment can be in order which 
contravenes the law or the constitution, or the 
standing or special orders of the assembly, or 
whicli is identical with any proposition already 
voted upon during the same meeting. Much 
controversy has arisen as to whether amend- 
ments not germane to the subject under con- 
siderntion can l)e ndmitlcd as in order. The 



86 PARLIAME-NTARY RULES. 

strong preponderance of authorities, however, 
rules out any amendment on a subject different 
from that under consideration. This is the ex- 
plicit rule in the House of Representatives, 
which reads : " No motion or proposition on 
a subject different from that under considera- 
tion shall be admitted under cover of amend- 
ment." The Senate has no such general rule, 
but has the following as to amendments to ap- 
propriation bills : " Nor shall any amendments 
not germane or relevant to the subject-matter 
contained in the bill be received; nor shall any 
amendment to any item or clause of such bill 
be received which does not directly relate 
thereto ; and all questions of relevancy of 
amendments shall be decided without debate." 
The rule in Parliament is, that an amendment 
must be coherent and consistent with the con- 
text of the bill •; and an amendment made by 
one House to an amendment made by the 
other, must be relevant to the same subject- 
matter. An amendment to strike out is put 
directly in this country, but the opposite rule 
prevails in Parliament, the Speaker putting the 
(juestion whether the words proposed to be 



IJUI'SIIONS. 87 

stricken oul shall stand. A member may move 
to substitute a wholly different proposition for 
the one moved, except in Committee of the 
Whole House, which is authorized only to con- 
sider the subject referred to it. In Congress, 
debate upon amendments is limited to five min- 
utes for each speaker in Committee of the 
Whole, but the majority may, at any time, close 
all debate upon any pending amendment; after 
which further amendments may be offered, to 
be decided without debate. Amendments do 
not require a second in either House of Con- 
gress; but in the House of Commons, every 
amendment must be proposed and seconded, 
the same as an original motion. In Congress, 
no amendment is in order to an appropriation 
bill which adds to expenditure, or which 
changes existing law. Amendments, however, 
which retrench expenditure and are germane to 
the subject-matter, may be entertained in the 
House, although they may alter the law. Any 
bill passed by one House is subject to amend- 
ment in all its parts by the other. When re- 
turned to the other body, the motion is usually 
made to non-concur in the amendments as a 



88 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

whole, and ai)})oint a Committee of Conference. 
No bill can be amended after both Houses have 
agreed to it. 

Appeal. 

All decisions of the presiding officer of an 
assembly are made subject to an appeal to the 
body itself. An ai)peal is often taken from a 
ruling of the Chairman on a point of order, 
and this may be moved by the member whom 
the Chair has overruled, or by any member. 
Appeals are debatable, and it is usual for the 
Chair to state the ground of his ruling, pending 
the question on the appeal. If any member 
appeals from the Chair's decision, and the ap- 
peal is seconded, the question is put by the 
presiding officer : " Shall the decision of the 
Chair stand as the judgment of the body ? " 
If the decision is not sustained, the Chair is 
overruled by a majority of the members, and 
such a decision stands as a precedent of some 
importance on similar (juestions that may 
arise. Frequently the motion is made to lay 
the appeal on the table, which, if carried, has 
the effect to sustain the decision of the Chair. 
In Congress, a rule of the House requires that 



QUES'l'lONS. 80 

the Speaker shall decide (juestions of order 
subject to an ai)peal by any member, and tliis 
appeal is debatable, except after a motion for 
the j)revious cpiestion. The Senate rule recjuires 
that questions of order be decided by the pre- 
siding officer, unless submitted by him to the 
Senate; such questions must be decided with- 
out debate, subject to an appeal. The appeal 
may be laid on the table, and thereupon the ac- 
tion of the Senate is held as affirming the decis- 
ion of the President. The presiding officer of an 
assembly may give his reasons for the decision 
which leads to the appeal, without leaving the 
Chair. Unless a standing rule i)revents, an ap- 
peal is debatable, no one member, however, 
speaking more than once. Questions of order 
once decided on appeal, cannot be renewed at 
the same sitting. 

In Parliament, no ai)i)eal is i)rovided for, but 
the Speaker of the Lords, as well as of the Com- 
mons, refers questions of order for the most 
part directly to the decision of the House. 

Attendance. 

The presence in an assembly of all regular 
members is assumed to be due to their constitu- 



90 PARLIAMKNTARY RULES. 

ents, at least m representative bodies. In con- 
ventions held for a specific purpose, where dele- 
gates are elected, it is usual to elect, also, alter- 
nates or proxies, to take the place of the reg- 
ularly elected delegates, should occasion arise. 
The alternates may or may not attend the con- 
vention, although in most cases they are present. 
In legislative bodies, no alternate, substitute or 
proxy can take the place of a member elect, 
though voting by proxy was allowed in the 
British House of Lords until 1868, when the 
practice was abolished by a standing order. 

The presence of legislators can only be dis- 
pensed with by leave of absence, or employment 
in the service of the body. Absenteeism may 
be carried so far as to obstruct business and 
prevent a quorum, which result is very unjust 
to members who attend faithfully to their public 
duties, as well as unfair to the constituents of 
the absentees. In Congress, the Constitution 
itself authorizes less than a quormii to compel 
the attendance of absentees ; and the rules of 
both Houses prohibit the absence of members 
without leave first obtained. The law requires 
salary to be deducted for absence of a Senator 



QUESTIONS. 91 

or Representative, except in case of his illness 
or that of his family. The names of members 
absent on yea and nay votes are recorded, and 
published in the journals and in the Co/igrrs- 
sional Record. 

In Parliament, urgent business or family 
afitliction is regarded as ground for a leave of 
absence, although it is occasionally refused. 

Bills. 

In all legislative bodies, the (juestions most 
frequently pending arc in the form of bills or of 
resolutions. A bill is any proposed act of legis- 
lation, and begins with the formula (in Con- 
gress): ^'-Be it enacted by the Senate and House 
of Representatives of the United States of Amer- 
ica^ in Cojigress assembled.'" Before 1 871, every 
section of a bill began with the words ^^afid be 
it further enactedf and the statute-books were 
thus encumbered with many pages of this 
tedious and useless verbiage. No enacting 
formula is now used in any section of a bill or 
law except the first. In the Senate, one day's 
notice must be given to introduce a new bill, 
unless by unanimous consent. In the House, 



92 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

the Speaker must call the States and Territories 
in the order of the alphabet on every Monday, 
for bills offered by the members for printing and 
reference, without debate. Of each bill 750 
copies are printed, and reprints or extra copies 
are often ordered. The number of bills offered 
in Congress is enormously large, and annually 
increasing, now exceeding 7,000 for a long ses- 
sion, and much beyond that for a Congress. 
Bills are at once referred, by announcement of 
the Speaker, to the committees to which, under 
the rules, they properly belong by their subject- 
matters. When committees have considered 
any bills referred to them, they usually report 
them back with a recommendation either : ( i) if 
adversely decided, that the committee be dis- 
charged from further consideration of the 
bill, and that it be indefinitely postponed; (2) 
if fiivorably reported, that the bill, with or with- 
out amendments of the committee, be placed 
upon the calendar or (in some cases, by unani- 
mous consent or suspension of the rules) put 
upon its passage. In the House there are six 
privileged committees having the right to report 
bills or resolutions at any time, namely : the 



QUF.SilONS. 93 

Committee on Elections, as to the right of mem- 
bers to seats in the House ; the Committee of 
Ways and Means, on revenue bills ; the Com- 
mittee of Appropriations, on general appropria- 
tion bills ; the Committee on Printing, on matters 
relating thereto ; the Committee on Accounts, 
on House expenditures; and the Committee on 
Enrolled Bills, such bills as are enrolled. Other 
bills from committees must take their chance of 
being reported back when the committee is 
called in its order. It is usual, when bills are 
first reported from committees, to have them 
l)rinted and recommitted, which gives time for 
examination before they are called up for action. 
When a bill is taken up for consideration, the 
rule recjuires it to be read in full, if demanded 
by any member. It is customary, however, to 
read bills only by title, except upon their pas- 
sage, when a full reading is mandatory. Every 
bill must be read three times : the first and 
second readings by title, the third reading in 
full when i)ut upon its passage, or by sections 
wlien debated and amended. ^Vhen a bill has 
been read three times, the Chair ])uts the ques- 
tion : " Shall Ihc bill i)ass?" After this no 



94 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

amendment can be ofiered, but it is open to 
debate, unless the previous question on its pas- 
sage has been demanded and seconded by the 
House. No bill can be amended by the addi- 
tion of any other pending bill or its substance. 
There are various ways of defeating a bill, be- 
sides the direct one of rejection. These are: (i) 
To move to strike out the enacting words or 
clause of the bill. This has precedence of mo- 
tions to amend, and, if carried, is equivalent to 
its rejection. (2) ]]y moving to lay the bill on 
the table, which motion takes precedence of 
every other except to adjourn, and must be de- 
cided without debate. If a bill is laid on the 
table, it is considered as finally defeated, as it 
is very rarely taken up again during the session. 
(3) By a motion to commit or recommit the 
bill. This is a common method of defeating or 
indefinitely postponing a measure which a ma- 
jority do not deem it ex]3edient to defeat by a 
direct vote; it is often made the means to bury 
a bill in committee, when it is known to be 
almost certain that the committee will find no 
opportunity to report it back (even if favorably 
inclined) at the same session. 



(jLii:sii()Ns. 95 

W^hcn any bill is passed, the committee chair- 
man, or the meml)er having it in charge, moves 
that the vote which passed it be reconsidered, 
and that the motion to reconsider be laid on 
the table. If this motion is carried, no recon- 
sideration can take place, and the passage of 
the bill is settled. In the Senate, however, no 
formality of a reconsideration and of laying 
that motion on the table prevails in the passage 
of bills. The Senate rule requires each bill and 
resolution to receive three readings previous to 
its passage. These readings must be on three 
different days, unless the Senate unanimously 
direct otherwise (as is frequently done). ]>ills 
reported from Senate committees must go on the 
calendar in the order reported. House bills, if 
not referred to Senate committees, are placed 
on the calendar in their order, unless (as hap- 
pens in rare cases) they are considered at once 
by unanimous consent. Bills introduced on 
leave, as well as House bills, may be read twice, 
if not objected to, for reference to committees, 
but cannot, on the same day, be reconsidered 
nor debated, if any objection is made. After a 
bill is read in the Senate a third time, amend- 



96 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

ments are not in order, except by unanimous 
consent; but it is in order at any time before 
the passage of any bill to move to commit it. 
Amendments to appropriation bills are not in 
order in the Senate if increasing appropriations, 
unless to carry out provisions of law previously 
passed, or unless moved by some committee. 
Any amendment proposed to a bill may be laid 
on the table without carrying with it or preju- 
dicing the bill itself. All bills passed by either 
House must be certified by its clerical officer, 
and, with his signature and the date of their 
passage, are conveyed by him or an assistant 
Clerk to the other House. Bills passed in one 
House and rejected in the other, must be noti- 
fied to the former. Such bills cannot be re- 
vived the same session except by a two-thirds 
vote, and after ten days' notice. While bills 
are on their passage between the two Houses, 
they are engrossed on paper; when passed by 
both branches, they are enrolled on parchment, 
and compared or collated by the Joint Commit- 
tee on Enrolled Bills. After this they must be 
signed by the President of the Senate and the 
Speaker of the House, and presented by a 



QUESTIONS. 97 

niemhcr of llitf last-named (-ommittcc to the 
President for his signature. This fre([uently 
involves some delay, as the P2xecutive (some- 
times with the aid of his constitutional advisers) 
has to examine all bills for approval or objec- 
tions. When signed by the President, bills are 
permanently filed in the Department of State, 
where they form the official acts of Congress, 
from which the " Statutes at Large " are i)rinted. 
The President's approval of any bill is com- 
municated by message to the House in which 
the bill originated, and this is entered upon 
the journal. If a bill is not returned by the 
President within ten days, it becomes a law by 
the Constitution, miless Congress meanwhile 
adjourns, in which case it does not become a 
law. Bills from which the President withholds 
his signature are usually returned within the ten 
days with his objections, when it requires a 
vote of two-thirds of the members present in 
each House to make them laws, notwithstand- 
ing the President's objections. 

Private Bills. 

Private bills are defined to be those for the 
])enefit of individuals, C()rj)orations, etc. Every 



98 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

Friday in each week is devoted, by rule of the 
House, to their consideration. Private bills, 
when reported from committees, must be con- 
sidered in Committee of the Whole. The Sen- 
ate has a rule that, when any private bill is con- 
sidered, it is in order, as a substitute for it, to 
refer the case to the Court of Claims for hearing 
and decision. 

In the British Parliament, there prevails a 
radical distinction between public and j^rivate 
l)ills, which is not recognized in Congress. Pri- 
vate bills, for the interest of individuals, cor- 
porations or localities, must be brought before 
the body by petition, and taken charge of by 
a parliamentary agent. These agents are re- 
quired to obey all the rules and practice of the 
House of Commons, to he registered, and to 
give bond in the sum of ^500, to fix their re- 
sponsibility. The time for considering private 
bills in Parliament is immediately after the 
meeting of the House. Private bills are, when 
set down for hearing, distinguished into opposed 
and unopposed bills. They are heard before 
committees upon private bills, and an elaborate 



(jUKsriONs. 'JU 

method uf procedure is laid down by standing 
orders. The chief responsibility rests with the 
chairman of the Ways and Means, who is 
charged with the special duty of examining, 
with the legal counsel of the Speaker, every pri- 
vate bill. 

In Congress, the great variety and constantly 
increasing number of bills for the relief of pri- 
vate parties, engross altogether too much time 
of the body and of its committees. This is to 
the prejudice of the public business, which is 
more and more throwui into arrears, and has 
led to many propositions for relief, including 
the reference of all private bills to the Court of 
Claims, or to create some new tribunal to hear 
and adjudicate all claims against the govern- 
ment. 

Bills containing appropriations of money 
may originate in either House of Congress, but 
all bills for raising revenue must, by constitu- 
tional requirement, originate in the House of 
Representatives, though the Senate's power of 
amendment is complete. In fiict, that body 
has sometimes taken such liberties with revenue 
bills, in spite of the jealousy of the House of 



100 PARLlAxMENTARY RULES. 

its prerogative in matters of revenue, as to 
make an entirely new measure out of a revenue 
bill sent to it from the House. The most recent 
and extreme instance of this was in the Tariff 
Revision act of 1883. In this case the Senate 
amended a little internal revenue reduction bill, 
passed by the House, by engrafting on it a thor- 
ough revision of the entire tariff system, and 
this, with some amendments, was accepted and 
passed by the House. In the Senate, the Com- 
mittee on Finance has charge of all revenue 
bills. In the House, they belong to the Com- 
mittee of Ways and Means. It is always in 
order, after the mornmg hour, to report or to 
move to consider appropriation bills, or bills 
respecting the tariff or internal revenue. 

The term " Omnibus Bill " is sometimes ap- 
plied in Congress to a bill embracing numerous 
distinct objects, as in the bill " making appro- 
priations for sundry civil expenses of the gov- 
ernment, and for other purposes." 

The preamble to a bill or resolution (when 
it embodies a preamble) is, by general parlia- 
mentary usage, postponed until the main 
body of the bill or the substantive clauses 



QUKSTIONS. 101 

of the resolution have been considered, alter 
which the question is taken on agreeing to 
the preamble. A motion to strike out the pre- 
amble, or to amend it, may be made. \Vhen 
(as often happens) no separate vote on the pre- 
amble is demanded, the question may be taken 
on the whole, or the preamble may be consid- 
ered as adopted sub silentio. 

Revenue bills are known in Parliament as 
money bills, and must originate in the House of 
Commons, Amendments to them by the Lords 
must not change the intention of the Commons 
by increase or deduction, or manner of raising 
the revenue. 

In the House of Lords, public bills may be 
offered without notice, but leave must be ob- 
tained in the Commons on notice previously 
given. Bills which have passed both Houses 
receive the royal assent by commission under 
the great seal. Occasionally the Queen assents 
to bills in person in the House of Lords. 

In the French Corps Legislaiif^ bills are pro- 
posed by the Ministry or by members of either 
Chamber, when they are printed and referred to 
the proper committees. Reports upon bills are 



]02 PARL[AMENTARY RULES. 

printed, after which the Chamber fixes a time 
for discussion. No bill can become a law until 
it has had two deliberations, with at least five 
days interval between them, except financial 
bills, and bills declared to be urgent. 

Bribery. 

Any attempt to bribe a member of a legisla- 
tive body is a breach of the privileges of the 
House. In Congress, several instances of lob- 
byists and others, charged with bribery, appear 
in the journals. The earliest case was that of 
Robert Randall, in 1795, ^^^^^ combined with 
Charles Whitney and others in forming a " ring " 
to procure from Congress a grant of twenty 
millions of acres of Western lands for a sum 
merely nominal. In this case, one member 
was offered money, and four were promised 
shares in the land grant if they would lend 
their aid to the scheme. Randall pretended 
that they had secured a majority of the Senate 
and thirty or forty Representatives, but on in- 
vestigation admitted the utter falsity of the 
statement. Even before the bill appropriating 
the lands was offered, he was exposed through 



QUESTIONS. 103 

members wliom lie liad approaclied, arrested 
by the order of the House, broiiglit to the bar 
and reprimanded by the Speaker, and dis- 
charged after two weeks' imprisonment. In 
the case of John Anderson, in 1818, the incul- 
pated person offered a fee of five hundred dol- 
lars to the chairman of the House Committee 
on Claims, '' for extra trouble in making a 
report." The ofter was at once laid before the 
House by the member, and on his motion 
Anderson was arrested, imprisoned and publicly 
reprimanded at the bar of the House. 

In the case of the Pacific Mail Steamship 
subsidy in 1872, which was passed, increasing 
the annual grant for carrying the mail from 
California to China and Japan from $500,000 
to $1,000,000, the subsidy was repealed ten 
years later, when an investigation was had. 
The Committee of Ways and Means rej^orted 
thnt no money was found to have been paid to 
any member of Congress, but the Pacific Mail 
Company had expended about $800,000 in 
employing lobbyists, journalists, and obscure 
employees of Congress, l)esides an ex-Congress- 
man or two, for sup])osed influence in the 



104 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

House or Senate. R. B. Irwin, the agent in 
these heavy disbursements, was examined as a 
witness, but obstinately refused to testify. 

Bribery or corruption in the election of a 
Senator has more than once been charged, but 
the only case in which the Senate Committee 
on Privileges and Elections have reported that 
it existed, was in the resolution adopted March 
4, 1873, that Alexander Caldwell, who had been 
returned by the Legislature of Kansas, " was 
not duly and legally elected a Senator," where- 
upon he resigned his seat. 

Call of the House. 

The motion for a call of the House or Senate 
is in order whenever no quorum is found to be 
present. In the Senate, the rule requires the 
Sergeant-at-Arms, when directed by a majority 
of the Senators present, to request, and when 
necessary to compel, the attendance of absent 
Senators, when upon a call of the Senate it is 
found without a quorum. After such a call, 
and pending the execution of the order to sum- 
mon absentees, no debate nor motion excei)t to 
adjourn is in order until a c^uorum appears. A 



QUESTIONS. 105 

call of the House proceeds in the same manner, 
the names of absentees being noted by the 
Clerk, after which the doors are closed, and the 
Sergeant-at-Arms or his deputies sent to arrest 
absentees wherever found. When absent mem- 
bers are brought in, they are produced at the 
bar, and must render their excuses for absence 
to the Speaker, the House deciding upon what 
condition (of fine, etc.) they may be discharged 
from arrest. Calls of the House are most fre- 
quent during night sessions, and are sometimes 
the signal for great disorder and merriment over 
the excuses trumped up by the arrested mem- 
bers. No motion can be made during the call 
except to adjourn the House, or that all further 
proceedings under the call be dispensed with. 
Upon the appearance of a quorum, the latter 
motion is generally made. 
Censure. 

A motion to censure a member of a legislative 
body may be proposed when he has violated 
the rules in debate, or by disorderly conduct, or 
by any act is held to deserve the censure of the 
House. If the motion to censure prevails, 
the rule requires the Speaker to i)ronounce 



106 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

that such a member (calling him by name at 
the bar) has incurred the censure of the House. 
Resolutions of censure have been frequently in- 
troduced in Congress, chiefly for transgressions 
of the rules of debate by violent or insulting 
remarks. Sometimes they have been withdrawn 
after proper apology, and sometimes passed. 
Instances have occurred also where the Speaker 
has been required to pronounce the censure of 
the House upon members guilty of grave der- 
elictions in their capacity of Representatives (^ ). 

(i.) Joshua R.Giddings, of Ohio, was censured by vote of the House 
March 22, 1842, for presenting resolutions denouncing the domestic 
traffic in slaves. He at once resigned his seat, but was returned by 
a great majority Resolutions of censure and expulsion were in- 
troduced in July, 185^, against Preston S. Brooks, of S. C, for a vio- 
lent assault upon Charles Sumner in the Senate Chamber, but failed 
to pass, although commanding a majority (a two-thirds vote being 
required to expel). Mr. Brooks resigned, but was immediately re- 
elected. In the same case, July 15, 1856, the Houe " declared its 
disapprobation " of the action of Lawrence M. Keitt, of S. C, in aid- 
ing and abetting the assault. Mr. Keitt resigned his seat, but was re- 
turned at the same session. April 14, 1864, Alexander Long, of Ohio, 
was declared by vote of a majority "an unworthy member of the 
House" for certain utterances regarding the war for the Union. Feb. 
28, 1870, the House passed resolutions ofcensure upon J. T. Deweese, 
of N. C, who had sold an appointment to a West Point Cadetship, 
a previously offered resolution of expulsion being withdrawn because 
of his resignation before the vote was taken. March 3, 1873, a reso- 
hition declaring that "the House absolutely condemns the conduct " 
of Oakes Ames and of James Brooks, in the Credit Mobilier matter, 
was passed. 



QUESTIONS. 107 

Others than Representatives, also, have been 
piibHcly reprimanded at the bar of the House 
by tlie Speaker for various offenses. 

The Speaker of the House of Commons has 
been many times directed by the House to 
reprimand or admonish at the bar persons who 
have oftended against the dignity of the body. 

In the French Chamber, censure, with for- 
feiture of salary, may be passed upon members 
refusing to heed a call to order, or raising a 
tumult, or menacing or insulting any member. 
In case of resistance by any deputy, or of 
tumult in the Chamber, the rule requires the 
President to adjourn the session at once. 

Cloture. 

The meaning of this term, recently adopted 
from the French into parliamentary law, is the 
closing of debate. It corresponds closely to 
the previous question, as it prevails in American 
assembHes. Up to 1882, there was no standing 
order in the Ijritish House of Commons which 
enabled a majority of the House to control its 
business by closing debate, and thus secure the 
passage of measures brought in by the Ministry 



108 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

in power by the will of the House. At two 
successive sessions of Padia.ment in 1 88 1-2, 
there occurred a bitter and protracted struggle 
between the majority and a small minority of 
Home Rulers, chiefly Irish members, over the 
proposed legislation investing the government 
with power to enforce the laws in Ireland. About 
forty members successfully struggled for months 
against an overwhelming majority, by taking 
advantage of the rules of the House, which 
were designed to promote freedom of discussion. 
Scenes of great disorder, with many all-night 
sessions of the House, resulted from these ob- 
structive tactics. The Home Rule members 
continually renewed their motions to adjourn 
the debate, to adjourn the House, etc., striving to 
weary out the majority, and defeat or postpone 
the obnoxious Irish bill. The Liberal majority, 
aided on this occasion by the Conservative party, 
who made common cause with the followers of 
Gladstone, kept the House together by relays of 
members relieving each other, and the debate 
went on day and night. At length, by a deci- 
sive assumption of power on the part of the 
Speaker in putting the question to vote, the 



QUESTIONS. 109 

debate was arrested, and the Irish members left 
the House in a body. Upon the Irish bill 
reaching a second reading, the same obstruc- 
tions were renewed, and the Speaker called by 
name Mr. Parnell, and other members who had 
disregarded the authority of the Chair, and 
violated the rules of the House. A motion to 
expel for the day thirty-one of the Home Rule 
party was carried through ; and soon after, the 
Gladstone resolution declaring the " urgency " 
of the bill was carried, 359 to 56. This secured 
parliamentary progress, and the Irish bill was 
passed through both Houses. At the next ses- 
sion of Parliament, in 1882, the Ministerial 
resolutions adopting new rules of procedure as 
a permanent standing order, in which the cloture 
was the leading feature, were carried after 
months of contest and debate. These new 
parliamentary rules are to the following effect : 

1, provides that the Speaker or Chairman may 
stop the debate at his discretion, if supported 
by more than 200 members, or if opposed by 
less than 40 and supported by more than 100; 

2, provides that motions for adjournment for 
the discussion of a definite matter of urgent 



110 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

importance, shall be entertained if 40 mem- 
bers support it by rising up ; 3, provides for 
limiting such debate to the subject in hand ; 4, 
provides for the taking of divisions ; 5, 6 and 7, 
are technical rules for the Speaker's or Chair- 
man's guidance; 8, makes it a standing order that 
no opposed motion shall be taken after half- 
past 12 at night; 9, regulates the suspension of 
offending members; 10, gives the Speaker or 
Chairman the power to check attempts to secure 
delay by abuse of the rules; 11 and 12, are 
minor provisions; and 13, makes the first seven 
and last three resolutions into standing orders. 
By the regleme?it of the French Chamber of 
Deputies, the President cannot pronounce the 
cloture to stop debate until he has taken the 
sense of the Chamber. In case the cloture is 
opposed, only one speech against it is permitted. 
When the cloture is once pronounced, no fur- 
ther debate is in order except brief remarks 
upon the state of the question. 

Consent. 

A motion for unanimous consent is made to 
make some business in order which would be 



QUESTIONS. Ill 

out of order under the rules. In the ordinary- 
course of business at public meetings, as well 
as in parliamentary bodies, any matter may re- 
ceive consideration by unanimous consent. In 
the Senate often, and sometimes in the House, 
legislation goes forward when it is well known 
that no quorum is present to legislate, simply 
because no member objects. The method of 
proceeding in any assembly is for a member to 
address the Chair : " I ask unanimous consent 
to ofter, or to take up," etc. The presiding 
officer then says : " Is it the pleasure of the 
assembly that " (such a thing should be done) ? 
If no member rises to dissent, he announces : 
"The Chair hears no objection," and the mat- 
ter is ordered, without putting the question in 
any other shape. If any member objects, there 
is of course an end to the motion for unani- 
mous consent, and the rules as to the order of 
business must be adhered to. The introduction 
of any bill or resolution out of its regular order 
requires unanimous consent. The most frequent 
requests for unanimous consent are to have 
leave to print remarks which members were 
prevented from making in open House ; to be 



112 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

excused from the House, or from voting; to 
have time extended when speaking ; to withdraw 
papers from the files ; to take up a bill or motion 
for present consideration, etc. If no objection 
is heard, the Chair announces that the request 
is granted. 

As no business in the House can be taken up 
out of regular order without consent of all, the 
right to object becomes very important, as a 
single member may thus defeat or postpone a 
measure, unless two-thirds of the House agree 
to suspend the rules. 

Elections. 

The election of members of Congress is a 
question of the highest privilege, the Constitu- 
tion itself making each House the judge of the 
elections, returns and qualifications of its own 
members. The Committee on Elections stands 
at the head of the list of committees in each 
House. Contested elections of members, of 
which several are found in every Congress, are 
carefully examined by these committees. The 
law requires any contestant of the election of a 
Representative to notify the member claiming to 



QUESTIONS. 113 

be elected of his proposal to contest the seat^ 
within thirty days after the result is declared. 
The member being required to answer within 
thirty days, each side is allowed ninety days 
longer to take testimony. The written testi- 
mony is sent to the Clerk of the House, and 
usually printed. Persons contesting the seats 
of members have the privilege of the floor 
pending the decision of their claim, and can 
be heard in their own behalf before a vote is 
taken. Questions of the right of a member to 
his seat take precedence of all other business. 
It is usual to vote an unsuccessful contestant, or 
a sitting member who is displaced by a contest- 
ant whose claim is favorably reported, a hand- 
some sum (now limited by statute to $2,000) 
for the expenses of making the contest. 

The election of Representatives in Coiigress 
is fixed by act of March 3, 1875, ^^ ^^ ^^^^ <^i^ ^ 
uniform day in all the States, viz., on the Tuesday 
next after the first Monday in November, every 
second year, in 1876, and following even years. 
But States whose constitutions fix a difterent 
election-day may elect earlier, until they amend 



114 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

their constitutions. Of these, only Ohio, West 
Virginia and Iowa remain. 

The election of Senators must, by law of 
Congress, be made by the Legislature chosen 
next before the expiration of the term of a Sen- 
ator. Each House must proceed to ballot for a 
Senator on the second Tuesday after its organ- 
ization, and at least one ballot must be taken 
daily until a choice is effected. Both Houses 
meet in joint assembly after the first separate 
vote, and a majority of this assembly is required 
to elect. 

In the British Parliament, where the trial of 
contests for seats by the House of Commons 
had led to great abuses by partisan majorities, 
the entire jurisdiction in the trial of contro- 
verted elections was transferred in 1868 to the 
courts of law. 

Expulsion. 

The motion to expel a member from either 
House of Congress requires a vote of two- 
thirds, under a provision of the Constitution 
itself. This high power has been several times 
exercised, although more frequently it has hap- 



QUESTIONS. 115 

pened that resolutions of expulsion have been 
lost through not commanding a two-thirds vote. 
They have also frecpiently been forestalled by 
the resignation of the offending member. In 
the Senate, July 8, 1797, William Blount, of 
Tennessee, was expelled for instigating Indians 
to aid the British arms in West Florida. A 
similar resolution to expel John Smith, a Sena- 
tor from Ohio, for complicity in Aaron Burr's 
treasonable movement in 18c 6, was lost by one 
vote, and the Senator afterward resigned. On 
the sth of February, 1862, Jesse .D. Bright, a 
Senator from Indiana, was expelled for alleged 
disloyalty to the government, by a vote of 32 to 
14. In the case of O. B. Matteson, W. A. Gil- 
bert, and other members in 1853, the House of 
Representatives being about to vote on resolu- 
tions of expulsion of the inculpated members for 
corruption in railway land grants, the resigna- 
tions of the members were tendered on the same 
day the expulsion resolutions were before the 
House. In the case of B. F. Whittemore, of 
South Carolina, whom a committee of the House, 
in 1S70, reported guilty of selHng an appointment 
to a cadetship at West Point Military Academy, 



116 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

resolutions of expulsion were brought in, but 
the member resigned his seat an hour or two 
before the question was to be taken. The reso- 
lutions were then laid on the table. Whittemore 
was,, however, re-elected to the same House, 
but that body passed a resolution returning to 
him his credentials, and refusing to allow him 
to be sworn in as a member. The same year, 
J. T. Deweese, a Representative from North 
Carolina, having confessed to a committee of 
investigation that he had received $500 on ac- 
count of an appointment to West Point, was 
about to be expelled, but resigned his seat be- 
fore the vote was taken. 

In the British House of Commons, a con- 
siderable number of cases of expulsion have 
occurred for such grave offenses as corruption, 
perjury, conspiracy, fraud, libel, forgery, etc. 
The latest mstance oi expulsion was that of 
James Sadleir, in 1857, for fraud. 

Expunging. 

Legislative bodies have sometimes rescinded 
the action of a former legislative body, by pass- 
ing a resolution to expunge from the journals 



QUESTIONS. 117 

some action or resolution formerly ado]3ted. 
This is a very questionable procedure, since it 
undertakes to mutilate a record, or to falsify the 
actual proceedings of the body. The most re- 
markable instance in Congress (and the only 
case found) was the passage of the famous ex- 
punging resolution offered by Senator Thomas 
H. Benton in 1837, to erase from the journal 
the resolution passed by the Senate of 1834 
censuring President Jackson for assuming 
" powers not conferred by the Constitution 
and laws, but in derogation of both." 

In the House of Commons, entries in the 
journal have sometimes been expunged by vote 
of the House. In 1782, the House reversed the 
action of its predecessors in the case of John 
Wilkes, who had been repeatedly expelled from 
Parhament, and ordered this vote expunged 
from the journals, as " subversive of the rights 
of the whole body of electors of this kingdom." 

Filibustering. 

This significant term, used in a parliament- 
ary sense, is applied to the motions, oft-repeated 
and renewed, for dilatory and obstructive pur- 



118 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

poses, by the minority. In the House of Rep- 
resentatives, nearly every session for years has 
witnessed what are termed filibustering tactics, 
to defeat or to postpone action upon an ob- 
noxious measure. The minority insist upon 
the right to call the yeas and nays on every 
question. Then, by constantly renewing motions 
to adjourn, to adjourn to a fixed day, to recon- 
sider, etc., and by successive relays of members 
to raise questions of order and parliamentary 
inquiries, long sessions are consumed, sometimes 
lasting all night, in the endeavor to weary out 
the majority, or to compel them to some com- 
promise. The latter end is frequently reached, 
and the determination of one party is broken 
by the determined resistance of the other. In 
the Senate, where there is little check upon 
debate (and some notable filibustering contests 
have come in the House from denial of full 
discussion by the majority), a milder kind of 
filibustering is sometimes carried on by a well- 
organized minority occupying the floor in 
succession, and each speaking as long as pos- 
sible to prevent a vote. Measures are some- 



QUESTIONS. 119 

times defeated by these tactics consuming the 
entire time of a session about to close. 

Order. 

The order of the day in an assembly or legis- 
lative body is the regular routine fixed by the 
rules for the consideration of business. To call 
for the "regular order" is to demand of the pre- 
siding oflicer that the body be recalled from 
other matters, or from what may be proposed 
by certain members out of due order, and pro- 
ceed to the unfinished business, or to whatever 
is prescribed by the rules. 

Special orders are subjects fixed in advance 
for a particular day, requiring a two-thirds vote 
for their assignment, though they may be post- 
poned by a majority vote when their time 
arrives. 

To preserve order m the assembly is the 
first duty of the presiding officer. Either the 
Chair or any member of the body may call to 
order members transgressing the rules. When 
the call to order is made, the member on the 
floor, though in the midst of a sentence, must 
sit down at once, unless permitted to explain by 



120 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

unanimous consent. If called to order for 
words spoken in debate, they must be reduced 
to writing and read to the House. The House 
must, if appealed to, decide on the case with- 
out debate ; if the decision is in favor of the 
member called to order, he is at liberty to pro- 
ceed, but not otherwise. 

When a point of order of any kind is made, 
it is the duty of the Chair to decide it forth- 
with (1). This he may do by sustaining the 
point of order as well taken, or by overruling 
it ; and the business moves on in accordance 
with his decision, unless appealed from. Ques- 
tions of order do not require to be seconded, 
but may be raised by any member, and at any 
time except when a division is going on. 

Petitions, 

The former usage in Congress was that mem- 
bers presented petitions in open House, but this 
led to so great a waste of time (many hundred 

(i) The exception is when the presiding officer is not required (as 
he is by the House rules) to determine points of order, but may submit 
them to the assembly at his option, to be determined. Thus, the Sen- 
ate rule permits the presiding officer to decide, or to refer to the de- 
cision of the Senate, any question of order. 



QUESTIONS. 121 

petitions and memorials being sometimes offered 
in a day), that the rule was changed. Members 
now deliver at the Clerk's desk the petitions they 
are requested to offer, endorsing them with 
their names, and the specific committee refer- 
ence desired. In the Senate, they continue to 
be presented pubhcly during the morning hour. 

In Parliament, all petitions (which are pre- 
sented in great numbers) must have original 
signatures. They are referred by the rules, with- 
out debate, to the Committee on PubHc Petitions. 

The French Chambers order a brief of peti- 
tions printed for the use of members. A Com- 
mittee on Petitions classifies them, referring 
some to government officers and others to the 
consideration of the Chamber. Each petitioner 
is advised of the disposition made. Twice a 
year the Ministers distribute a printed report to 
the members, stating what action they have 
taken upon petitions referred to them. 

Previous Question. (See Cloture, p. 107.) 

This important motion puts it in the power 
of a majority to close debate at any time by 
ordering the vote immediately on the (question 



122 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

under consideration. It is not in order to debate 
nor to amend the motion for the previous ques- 
tion. It yields only to questions of order or 
of privilege, or to the motion to lay on the table. 
When any member of the assembly calls for tlie 
previous question, if there is a second, the pre- 
siding officer must immediately inquire : " Shall 
the main question be now put ? " If a majority 
vote in the affirmative and the previous question 
is ordered, the member who offered or reported 
from a committee the matter before the House 
is entitled to the floor to close the debate (this 
being the only exception to the peremptory cut- 
ting off of discussion). After this the Chair 
puts the questions before the assembly in their 
order of precedence, until the main question, 
with all subsidiary ones, is disposed of. The pre- 
vious question was first recognized in Congress 
m the earliest rules of the House in 1789, which 
directed that it might be demanded by five 
members. It does not prevail in the Senate? 
where debate is without limit, unless rules are 
agreed upon to limit it (as in Committee of the 
Whole). 

If the motion for the previous question fails 



QUESTIONS. 1 23 

to command a majority, the discussion contin- 
ues just as if the motion had not been made. 
The call may be limited to ordering the previous 
question on an amendment, and when this is 
disposed of the main question will be again 
open to debate, unless the mover has taken the 
precaution to mclude in his call the pending 
question and all amendments thereto. It is 
held by some that a two-thirds vote should be 
required for the adoption of any motion to cut 
oft' debate ; but in the absence of any rule in the 
constitution or by-laws of the body, the require- 
ment of a simple majority (as in the House of 
Representatives) is prevalent, and is more in 
consonance with that progress which is so im- 
portant in the business of associations of any 
kind. 

There are various methods to prevent the 
consideration of any question which it is de- 
sired by any portion of the assembly to suppress. 
One of these is for a member to object to the 
consideration of the question at the outset, and 
before discussion. This raises the question of 
consideration (not requiring a second), and the 
Chair must inquire : " Will the assembly con- 



124 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

sider this question ? " If the vote is in the 
negative, the question is at once removed from 
before the body, and cannot be brought up 
again during the same sitting. 

The most usual motion to defeat the consid- 
eration of a question after debate, is to move 
that it be indefinitely postponed. This can only 
be made when no other motion is pending ex- 
cept a main question, and it is open to debate, 
unlike the motion for the previous question. It 
yields only to a preferred question, and is not 
amendable. If carried, it removes the mam 
question from consideration during the sitting. 

Another and most effective method of get- 
ting rid of a question without action, is to move 
to lay it upon the table. This motion is 
not debatable nor subject to amendment, and 
if carried by a majority, it removes the ques- 
tion from consideration. But being simply 
laid upon the table until the assembly wish to 
consider it, this disposition is not final (unless 
there is a rule making it so), but simply avoids 
the question while there is a majority opposed 
to its consideration. It is an ancient rule of 
Parliament that " a question being once made, 



QUESTIONS. 125 

and carried in the affirmative or negative, can- 
not be questioned again, but must stand as a 
judgment of the House." The ratio)iale of this 
rule is that it is necessary, to save the time of the 
body from being wasted in the discussion of 
motions of the same nature. Contradictory 
decisions would often be arrived at during the 
same session, and it is obvious that some things 
must be accepted as settled. But in practice 
there is much latitude, even in Parliament, and 
successful evasions of the rule occur by mem- 
bers changing the character of the motion suffi- 
ciently to constitute a new question. 

Privilege. 

A distinction is to be drawn between a priv- 
ileged question and a question of privilege. 
The latter involves the character and preroga- 
tives of the assembly or its members, and will 
here be treated first ; the former respects the 
order of precedence accorded to the various 
matters coming before an assembly. 

A question of privilege, if actually decided 
by the presiding officer to be such, takes pre- 
cedence of any business in hand, because it 



126 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

concerns the rights of the assembly or of its 
members. It may relate to disturbances of the 
proceedings, to menace or insult of a member, 
to attacks upon character in a representative 
capacity, etc. A question of privilege may be 
debated, postponed to a time fixed, referred to 
a committee for inquiry and report, or laid on 
the table. The Chair must promptly decide, 
when first proposed, whether the matter brought 
forward presents a question of privilege or not; 
from this decision an appeal lies to the assembly. 
When any question raised by a member 
presents a question of privilege, in the judgment 
of the presiding ofticer, he must entertain it in 
preference to all other business; but the too 
common practice of members undertaking to 
make personal explanations under the plea of 
a privileged question, should not be tolerated in 
any well-ofticered deliberative or legislative body. 
The plain reason is that one member has no 
right to consume the time of all the rest, and ob- 
struct the public business, to listen to his personal 
grievances. If one member, for example, may 
bring the shield of the rules to cover his personal 
defense against newspaper attacks, all the mem- 



QUESTIONS. 127 

bers may insist upon the same right — a result 
which would be obviously intolerable. The 
rule of the House of Representatives is, that 
questions of privilege aftecting members individ- 
ually must relate to their representative capacity 
only. It has now become the well-settled prac- 
tice, when a member rises to a question of privi- 
lege based upon a newspaper publication, for 
the Speaker to hold that such publication must 
assail or reflect upon the member in his official 
capacity ; that is, connect him with alleged cor- 
rupt or improper influences as to some matter 
of legislation ; otherwise it is not a matter of 
privilege. 

In the House of Representatives, the highest 
privilege attaches to questions affecting the 
rights of the House itself, maintaining its dig- 
nity, and the integrity of its proceedings. The 
privilege of a Representative rests upon the 
right of his constituency to be always repre- 
sented in his person. The Constitution itself 
l)rovides that Senators and Representatives shall 
not be questioned elsewhere for any speech or 
debate in either House, and shall be privileged 
from arrest during the sessions, and in going and 



128 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

returning. In maintaining their privileges, both 
Houses of Congress have repeatedly directed 
reporters to be excluded from the hall, or ordered 
the Speaker to reprimand an offending person at 
the bar of the House, or directed the arrest of 
the accused, or committed them to custody 
within the Capitol, or ordered a refractory wit- 
ness or a person assaulting a member, to be 
imprisoned in the jail of the District of Colum- 
bia. The most frequent cases in which Con- 
gress asserts its privilege are the refusals of 
witnesses to testify before its committees. Many 
recusant witnesses have been imprisoned until 
the expiration of the Congress, or until they 
have repented and agreed to answer, or until 
discharged from custody by vote of the major- 
ity. The stretch of power by which a legisla- 
tive body exercises the functions of a court has 
always been controverted. While it cannot be 
denied that the power, if it exists, is extra-consti- 
tutional, it is asserted, on the other hand, that the 
power to compel testimony relating to matters of 
public legislation is inherent in every legislative 
body, has been frequently exercised by Congress 
and by State Legislatures, and is essential to their 



QUESTIONS. 129 

power and proper functions. The power is 
limited by some State constitutions, which pro- 
hibit any imprisonment by legislative authority 
beyond a certain term of hours or days. While 
in some early cases this power in Congress has 
been maintained by the Supreme Court, on the 
basis of right and necessity, the Court hekl, in 
Kilbourn v. Thompson, in 1880, that imprison- 
ment for refusal to divulge to a committee of 
Congress the private accounts of a company in a 
matter under mvestigation by the House, was 
illegal and unconstitutional. Kilbourn had 
been imprisoned forty-five days in jail as a 
recusant witness, and the Speaker who signed 
the warrant, the Sergeant-at-Arms who held the 
prisoner in custody, and the committee who 
brought in the resolution for imprisonment, 
were joined as defendants in a suit for dam- 
ages brought by Kilbourn. In the case of the 
members of the House, the Court held their 
constitutional privilege to be a good defense, 
but the order of the House declaring the wit- 
ness guilty of contempt of its authority, and 
ordering his imprisonment, was adjudged void, 
and as affording the Sergeant-at-Arms no pro- 



130 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

tection in the suit brought by the witness. The 
Constitution gave the House no power to pun- 
ish for contempt, and no authority to compel a 
witness to testify where the subject-matter of 
the investigation was judicial and not legisla- 
tive (103 U. S. Reports, 168). In this case, 
after the above adjudication, three several trials 
were had in the Court below, involving the 
measure of damages to be awarded plaintiff as 
against the Sergeant-at-xA.rms. The first jury 
awarded him $100,000; but this and the award 
of a second ($60,000) and a third jury ($37,- 
500) were all set aside as excessive, the Court 
finally permitting the defendant to recover $20,- 
000 damages. 

Many questions of privilege, growing out of the refusal of wit- 
nesses to testify, have arisen in Congress. John Nugent, a New 
York Herald correspondent, who procured from a Senator the Guada- 
loupe-Hidalgo treaty with Mexico in 1848, and published it, while 
it was yet under injunction of secrecy and unratified in the Senate, 
was examined by a committee as to the means by which he got the 
treaty, and refusing to testify, was imprisoned six weeks by order of 
the Senate. In 1S57, J. W. Simonton, of the New York Thnes, 
was imprisoned January 21st, and kept in confinement nearly three 
weeks by the House of Representatives, for refusing to divulge the 
names of members who, as he had declared, were influenced by a 
corrupt consideration in the railroad land grant legislation of that 
year. In 1868, C. W. Woolley was incarcerated from May 28tli to 
June nth for refusing to testify regarding alleged corrupt transac- 
tions in securing the acquittal of President Johnson in the im- 



QUESTIONS. 131 

In the British Pailiament, many arbitrary 
acts of tyranny have been visited upon persons 
held guilty of violating the i)rivileges of that 
body. But though maintained by the Court of 
King's Bench, the right to imprison a sul)ject 
for contempt of the House has long been re- 
garded with increasing jealousy. 

The following list, made up from the jour- 
nals, summarizes the more important questions 
•— - — ^~-~~~ 

peachment proceedings before the Senate. In 1871, Z. L. White 
and H. J. Ramsdell, newspaper coi respondents, were held in con- 
finement, by order of the Senate, for nine days, because they refused 
to divulge how they obtained the Treaty of Washington (Alabama 
Claims) for publication, before it was ratified by the Senate. In 
1870, one Patrick Woods, for an assault upon Charles H. Porter, 
a member of the House, in the streets of Richmond, Va., was 
brought to Washington and confined in the district jail for three 
months, by order of the House. In February, 1873, J. B. Stewart, 
an attorney, was imprisoned in the Capitol some thirty days, as a 
recusant witness in the Credit IMobilier investigation. In January, 
1875, R. B. Irwin was kept in close custody more than two weeks 
for refusing to reveal the names of corrupt parties who had profited 
by the Pacific Mail Steamship subsidy ring. 

In January, 1877, Enos Runyon was imprisoned for refusing to 
testify regarding certain transactions as to the Electoral vote of 
Oregon. 

In March, 1800, William Duane, editor of the Philadelphia 
Aurora, was arrested by order of the Senate, and brought to its bar 
for alleged defamatory publications concerning Senators. Motions 
were made to imprison him, and to prosecute him under the Sedition 
law, but the matter was dropped without action. March 4th, 1846, 
the reporters of the New York Tribune were expelled from the 
House of Representatives on account of correspondence ridiculing 
William Sawyer, a Representative from Ohio. 



132 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

which have been adjudged matters of privilege 
in Congress : Assault upon a member ; duel 
between two members, or challenge of a mem- 
ber; disorder in the gallery; offer to bribe a 
member; refusal of witnesses to appear before 
committees, or refusal to testify; right of a 
member to • be seated ; election of a Speaker ; 
menacing language toward a member; refusal 
of a member to take his seat when ordered by 
the Chair ; violent language toward members in 
debate; fracas between two reporters in pres- 
ence of the House; a motion to impeach the 
President; alleged mutilation of the journal; 
charges affecting official character of a mem- 
ber; protest by the President against proceed- 
ings of the House ; misconduct of the House 
printer in publishing charges in his newspaper ; 
alleged false report of House proceedings by 
one of its reporters; alteration and interpola- 
tion in House bills ; misconduct of an ofhcer of 
the House ; divulging the secrets of the body ; 
alleged corrupt combinations by members. 

Privileged questions, specifically made such 
by the rules, are of different grades. Motions 
to adjourn, to fix the day to which the House 



QUESTIONS. 133 

shall adjourn, and to take a recess, are privi- 
leged, because always in order. Motions to 
reconsider stand next in privilege (in the House 
of Representatives), taking precedence of all 
other questions except those of adjournment 
and the consideration of conference reports. 
The motion for a call of the House is privi- 
leged; so are resolutions of mquiry directed to 
the heads of executive departments, when re- 
ported from committees (except on Friday). 
Reports from the six committees who have leave 
to report at any time, are privileged questions. 
A motion to consider a bill returned with the 
Presidential veto, is a privileged question under 
the Constitution. The previous question applies 
upon questions of privilege, as well as in other 
cases. 

Question. 

Putting the question with propriety is one of 
the most important duties of a presiding officer ; 
it is also one of the most frequent. Questions 
are to be put in the first instance in this form : 
"As many as are in favor (of the motion, reso- 
lution, bill, order, etc.) will say Aye." And 



134 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

after the affirmative vote is heard, the Chair will 
say: "As many as are opposed, will say No." 
The Chair then decides according to the vol- 
ume of voices on each side, and announces, 
"The Ayes have it," or "The Noes have it by 
the sound," as the case may be. Other 
methods of taking the question are considered 
under Votes. It is the duty of the Chair, be- 
fore calling for the vote, to state the question 
clearly to the assembly, being careful that the 
body is in order at the time, that all may hear. 
Mistakes in voting, both viva voce, and by all 
other methods, are very common ; they arise 
frequently from want of precision and clearness 
in stating the question by the Chair, as well as 
through the inattention or preoccupation of 
members, and from conversation and confusion 
in the hall. It is, at every stage of the proceed- 
ings, the duty of the Chair to state the question 
before the assembly, on request of any member. 
A practice prevails in many assemblies, and 
even in legislative bodies, for members to call 
out " Question ! Question !" or " Vote ! Vote !" 
when anxious for the progress of business, or 
impatient of debate. Although this may be 



QUESTIONS. 135 

technically a violation of the rules of order, yet 
as it tends to forward the matter in hand, and 
to bring tedious speakers to abridge their 
efforts, it should not be interfered with by a 
judicious presiding officer. 

Any member of an assembly may ask a 
question of the Chair, but such inquiries should 
be confined to seeking information as to the 
question before the assembly, the effect of a 
certain motion, or vote, etc.; in short, such a 
question as will tend to elucidate the matter 
under consideration. In all formally organized 
or deliberative bodies, such questions should be 
introduced with the formula : " I rise to a par- 
liamentary inquiry. Will the Chair state," etc. 

In the British Parliament, questions are fre- 
quently put to the Ministry, or to a member of 
the Cabinet on the floor. One day's notice 
must be given of such questions by the mem- 
bers ]jroposing to ask them. These questions 
must concern public measures or events, and 
while inquiry may be made as to the intentions 
of the government on any particular matter, 
they can not be questioned as to their opinions 
upon general matters of policy. 



136 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

Recess, 

A motion to take a recess, like that to ad- 
journ, is privileged, and is not debatable. A 
recess is a qualified form of adjournment. To 
take a recess to a definite hour, whether of the 
same day or the day following, serves, in pro- 
tracted sessions, when business presses, to give 
needful rest and refreshment to the members of 
the body, without long cessation of their public 
duties. In case of a recess, the legislative day 
runs on until an adjournment is had, and the 
journal bears the continuous date of that day. 

The term Recess is also used to designate 
the interval between two annual or occasional 
sessions of Congress, usually continuing each 
year from the adjournment to the first Mon- 
day in December. Leave is frequently granted 
to committees in either House of Congress 
to sit during the recess in order to take 
testnnony, to visit some part of the country 
upon the business of an investigation, or to 
mature business to be submitted to the respect- 
ive Houses. 



QUESTIONS. 137 

Reconsideration. 

The motion to reconsider is of great impor- 
tance, since, if it prevails, an action of the body 
already taken is liable to be reversed. The only 
method of bringing up, during the same sitting 
of an assembly, a question once settled, is by a 
motion to reconsider the vote on that question. 
It is a privileged motion, taking precedence of 
every other except those connected with ad- 
journment. The motion to leconsider a ques- 
tion can be made only by a member who voted 
with the majority when the question was 
settled, unless there was no division of the 
assembly thereon. The general rule is that the 
motion must be made on the same day when 
the vote was taken which it is sought to recon- 
sider. In the Senate, however, it may be made 
on the same day or on either of the next two 
days of actual session ; while m the House, it 
must be made on the same day or the day fol- 
lowing. The motion to reconsider a vote opens 
up the original question to debate (except in the 
Senate), in case that was a debatable question. 
The motion may, however, be made and entered 

(5) 



138 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

on the minutes without immediate action, to be 
called up at the next meeting, although this is a 
matter to be settled by the rules of the body. 
When the motion to reconsider is lost, it dis- 
poses of the main question, which cannot again 
be considered at the same sitting, unless a sec- 
ond motion to reconsider the vote by which the 
assembly refuse to reconsider, should be made 
and carried. When a motion to reconsider is 
carried (which requires a majority only), the 
presiding officer must state that the question 
now recurs on the adoption of the main ques- 
tion, the vote on which is under reconsidera- 
tion. This brings the original question before 
the assembly in the same position as when it 
was first voted upon, and it is treated in every 
respect as an original question. 

The motion to reconsider yields to privileged 
questions only. In the Senate, the motion to 
reconsider must be decided without debate, and 
may be laid on the table, which, if carried, oper- 
ates as a final disposition of the motion. If 
the Senate desires to reconsider any bill, etc., 
which it has passed and sent to the House of 
Representatives, the motion to reconsider must 



QUESTIONS. 139 

be accompanied by a motion to request the 
House to return the same. If the motion to 
reconsider be lost, it can only be renewed by 
unanimous consent. 

In the House, the motion to reconsider can 
be made only by a member who voted with the 
prevailing side, if the yeas and nays were taken; 
otherwise, any member may move a reconsider- 
ation. A motion to reconsider may be made 
regarding every question except to adjourn and 
to suspend the rules. It is debatable only when 
the question to be reconsidered was debatable, 
in which case it brings up for discussion the en- 
tire subject. The House has an important rule 
providing that no bill, resolution, etc., referred 
to a committee shall be brought back into t|je 
House on a motion to reconsider. Where a 
motion to reconsider has been once put and 
decided, it is not in order to repeat the motion, 
unless an amendment has been adopted since 
the first reconsideration, thus presenting new 
matter. A motion to reconsider a vote by which 
the House refused to adjourn is not in order, 
nor is a motion to reconsider a vote on the re- 
consideration of a vetoed bill; nor can a vote 



140 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

on a motion to suspend the rules be reconsid- 
ered. One kind of reconsideration which seems 
peculiar to the House of Representatives, is for 
the member having charge of a measure, as soon 
as the vote is taken upon it, to move to recon- 
sider the vote last taken, and, also, to move that 
the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. 
If the latter motion prevails, it is deemed a 
finality so far as the vote proposed to be recon- 
sidered is concerned. 

In both houses of Parliament, a vote once 
taken cannot be reconsidered. 

Reports. 

In every deliberative body, reports form one 
of the most important classes of business com- 
ing before the assembly. The object of a re- 
port is, or should be, to present to the body a 
recommendation of some kind for its action, 
together with a statement of the reasons for 
that recommendation. Reports should be 
clearly and succinctly wTitten, dealing only 
with the most important points of the case in 
hand, dwelling little, if at all, upon objections 
thereto, and avoiding all matters not immedi- 



QUESTIONS. 141 

ately relevant to the question. The matter 
reported upon will thus be simplified for the ac- 
tion of the assembly, which can act understand- 
ingly only upon a clearly reasoned statement of 
each matter coming before it. All reports to 
an assembly come from committees, unless they 
are formal reports from its officers, and, as a 
rule, are required to be in writing. If the com- 
mittee cannot agree on a unanimous report, it 
is in order for those dissenting to submit a 
minority report ; and this should be read to the 
assembly with the report of the committee, as 
that agreed to by the majority is always termed. 
{See Committees, p. 53.) 

In both Houses of Congress, it is usual to 
order reports to be printed and recommitted to 
the committee reporting them, or placed upon 
the calendar for future action. But it is not un- 
usual, in the case of private bills or measures of 
pressing moment, to act upon them with merely 
a written report or recommendation of some 
committee. 

In the Senate, reports of committees are 
called for and offered every morning, and must 
be printed, unless, for the dispatch of the busi- 



142 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

ness of the Senate, the printing is directed to 
be dispensed with. Reports of Senate commit- 
tees must He over one day for consideration, 
unless the Senate, by unanimous consent, directs 
otherwise. 

The rules of the House provide for calling 
for the reports of committees daily in the morn- 
ing hour, except on the first and third Mondays 
of each month. The reports which may be 
made from six committees are always m order; 
others must wait their day of unanimous con- 
sent, or a two-thirds majority to suspend the 
rules for their consideration. 

Reports of Executive Departments are ad- 
dressed to the Speaker of the House, or to 
the President of the Senate, and are always 
ordered to be printed and referred. It is the 
custom in the House for the Speaker, by unan- 
imous consent, to lay such communications be- 
fore the House, just after the approval of the 
journal, or the expiration of the morning hour, 
for reference. Such communications, and mes- 
sages from the President, are the first business 
in order whenever the House proceeds to the 
consideration of business on the Speaker's table. 



QUESTIONS. 143 

Each session's reports of the Senate and House 
committees make several bulky printed volumes, 
and the executive reports, both regular and 
special, fill a great many more. 

In Parliament, reports from special commit- 
tees or commissions are always published in 
folio as "blue books," with the evidence taken 
upon the subject-matters of the report, which 
is carefully indexed. 

In the French Chambers, reports of com- 
mittees must be printed at least twenty-four 
hours before the bill to which they relate is 
considered. 

Reporters. 

In all public assemblies, the importance of 
full public information causes special provision 
to be made for the reporters of the press. The 
Senate and the House of Representatives each 
employs a corps of five official short-hand re- 
porters to write down the votes, proceedings 
and debates verbatim^ for publication in the 
Congressional Record (styled the Congressional 
Globe until 1873), the next day. In the House, 
two reporters of the Associated Press are also 



144 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

admitted on the floor, while an ample reporters' 
gallery, directly over the Chair in both Houses, 
accommodates the representatives of the gen- 
eral press, under regulations made by the pre- 
siding officer. 

The ancient usage in Parliament was to 
exclude all strangers, reporters included, on the 
motion of any member, and it was long made 
illegal to publish any of the proceedings or de- 
bates in Parliament. This was held to be a 
breach of the privileges of members of Parlia- 
ment. Of late years the free admission of 
reporters is the rule, although exceptions are 
occasionally enforced on motion of members, 
reporters having been actually excluded as re- 
cently as in 1870 and 1878 to avoid publicity 
being given to debates. 

In the French Corps Leglslatif, reporters are 
freely admitted to the galleries. 

Resignations. 

The resignation of a member of a delibera- 
tive body or of any society is considered as a 
right, while it sometimes presents a question of 
privilege. Vacancies caused by resignation, 



QUESTIONS. 145 

whether in the body itself or in its committees, 
are to be filled by the electing or appointing 
power, under such rules as are adopted. In 
Congress, the resignation of a Senator or Rep- 
resentative has always been treated in practice 
as an inherent right. It was never contested 
until the 41st Congress, when the Speaker de- 
cided that the member had the right to resign, 
and an appeal from the decision was laid upon 
the table by the House, thereby affirming it. 
When a Senator or Representative resigns his 
seat, his letter of resignation is addressed to the 
Governor of the State he represents, and, at the 
same time, it is the i)ractice for a member resign- 
ing to notify the presiding officer of the body to 
which he belongs, in writing, of the action he 
has taken. In either case, there can be no 
acceptance or refusal to accept the resignation. 
Representatives resigning their seats in Con- 
gress, not infrequently address a public letter 
through the i)ress to the people of the district 
which they represent, assigning reasons for the 
step taken. 

Vacancies occurring in the Senate, whether 
by death or resignation (a case of long illness or 



146 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

Other disability is not provided for), are notified 
to the Governor of the State, who may fill the 
vacancy by a Senator of his own appointment 
when the Legislature is not in session, pending 
the election of a Senator by the Legislature when 
next convened. A vacancy in the House of 
Representatives can be filled only by a new 
election by the people of the Congressional 
district which is left unrepresented, the day for 
such election being fixed by proclamation of 
the Governor of the State. 

In Great Britain, it is a professedly settled 
principle of the law of Parliament that a mem- 
ber cannot relinquish his seat during the term 
for which he was elected. By an ingenious 
evasion of this restriction, however, a member 
wishing to resign asks to be appointed " Stew- 
ard of the Chiltern Hundreds," an old and 
nominal office without any functions, which is 
given to any member who applies for it. Any 
acceptance of office under the Crown (except 
in the Ministry) legally vacating the seat of a 
member of Parliament, this obliges the House 
to order a new election. 

Vacancies in the House of Commons are 



QUESTIONS. 147 

filled by a new election held pursuant to a 
writ issued out of Chancery by a warrant 
from the Speaker. 

In the French Chambers, any member has 
the right of resignation at any time. 

Resolutions. 

A resolution of an assembly is an expression 
of its opinion with regard to any matter, or a 
declaration of the purpose of the assembly. 
Resolutions in a society or permanent body are 
moved to accompUsh many different objects : 
as to raise or to appropriate money, to impose 
a special tax upon the members, to authorize 
a member or a committee to perform some 
action, etc. All resolutions should be expressed 
in brief and clear terms, and should include 
one independent proposition, unless two en- 
tirely congruous ones can be united in one res- 
olution to expedite business. It is quite usual 
for resolutions to be offered embracing incon- 
gruous and even contradictory matter. In such 
cases a division of the question should be called 
for before putting the resolution to vote. When 
a division of the question is ordered on a reso- 



148 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

lution, the first part is to be taken first, unless, 
for obvious reasons, the nature of the matters 
embraced indicates another order. 

In Congress, frequent resolutions of inquiry- 
are passed by either House, requesting certain 
information from the executive or the heads 
of departments. A resolution of one body, 
whether declaring the sense of the House or 
otherwise, does not bind Congress, and is not 
pubHshed in the statutes, but only in the jour- 
nal of the House which passes it, and in the 
Congressional Record. A joint resolution, how- 
ever, when passed by both Senate and House, 
has all the force of law. Such resolutions 
sometimes contain appropriations of public 
money. Resolutions conveying the thanks of 
Congress to military, naval or civil ofiicers for 
distinguished public services, are always joint 
resolutions. Concurrent resolutions, unlike 
joint ones, do not require the signature of the 
President, and are not published in the statutes 
at large. They are passed to provide for the 
printing of documents, etc. The form of a 
concurrent resolution is as follows : '■'■Resolved., 
by the Senate (the House of Representatives 



QUESTIONS. 149 

concurring)," or vice versa. In the Senate, all 
resolutions objected to must lie over one day. 
In the House, it is customary to adopt, by reso- 
lution, the standing rules and orders for the 
government of that body. It declares, by reso- 
lution, that it entertains certain opinions regard- 
ing public affairs, proposed legislation, or some 
specific acts of government officials. 

In the British Parliament, every resolution 
reported by a committee may be amended, dis- 
agreed to, postponed or recommitted. 

Riders. 

This term is applied to designate an amend- 
ment to a bill, tacking on to it, by a motion or 
the action of a committee, subjects of legisla- 
tion foreign to the substance of the bill itself. 
It has been sometimes a common practice in 
legislative bodies to attach to the regular appro- 
priation bills for the service of the year, which 
must be passed under penalty of embarrassing 
the civil or military or naval service, riders em- 
bracing new legislation having no connection 
with the appropriations. The objects of this 
questionable practice are, first : to carry through 



150 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

some measure which could not otherwise be 
reached during the session under the rules ; 
secondly, to accomplish the amendment or 
repeal of existing laws; or, thirdly, to force 
upon the other House, when opposed in polit- 
ical opinion, a measure obnoxious to it and cer- 
tain to be rejected if embodied in a separate 
bill. In Congress, this foisting upon appropria- 
tion bills of legislation foreign to their pur- 
pose, was carried so far that both Houses have 
adopted rules that no provision in any appro- 
priation bill shall be in order which changes 
existing law, except such as is germane and 
retrenches expenditure. Another rule, in the 
House, prohibits amendment of any bill or reso- 
lution by incorporating in it the substance of 
any other bill or resolution pending. 

In the British Parliament, riders to bills are 
called ''tacks; " and, as the House of Com- 
mons has the constitutional power to grant sup- 
plies without interference by the Lords, they 
have sometimes abused this power by tacking 
to bills of supply enactments distasteful to the 
other House. These being contained in a bill 
which the House of Lords has no right to 



QUESTIONS. 151 

amend, place that body in the embarrassing 
position of suffering them to pass, or of ob- 
structing the pubUc service by the failure of its 
money supplies. This procedure has been re- 
sisted (and successfully) by protest, by confer- 
ence and by the rejection of the bill. There 
have been no recent instances in which riders 
have been irregularly tacked to bills of supply 
in order to extort the consent of the Lords. 

Seats. 

This term, as used in an official sense, im- 
plies, first : the function of a Representative — as, 
to be admitted to his seat ; to contest the seat 
of a member, etc. ; secondly, in a literal sense, 
it is the chair, desk or bench occupied by a 
member. In Congress, the seats of Senators 
and Representatives are arm-chairs, each pro- 
vided with a writing-desk. At the organization 
of each new Congress the seats are drawn by 
lot, those first drawn, of course, securing the 
choice of the most cHgible seats. This is in 
the House of Representatives ; in the Senate, 
there is no lot, but seats are "spoken for" or 
selected in advance, as vacancies occur, by in- 



152 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

dividual Senators. In both branches of Con- 
gress, it is an established practice for members 
of the same party to sit near together, the 
Democrats occupying the seats to the right of 
the Chair, and the Republicans those on the 
left. In case, however, of a preponderant ma- 
jority of one party being elected, the over-plus 
take seats among the ranks of their opponents. 
In the British Parliament, and in the French 
Chambers, no desks are tolerated, and benches 
are used as seats. PubHc business receives un- 
divided attention, and debate, in the true sense 
of the word, commands the ear of the assembly. 

Substitute. 

A motion to amend the main question by 
the adoption of a substitute is sometimes in 
order when nothing else in the nature of an 
amendment could be entertained. The rule of 
all parliamentary bodies is, not to admit an 
amendment in the third degree, /. ^., the right 
to offer amendments is exhausted when an 
amendment to the main question and an 
amendment to that amendment, have been 
brought before the assembly. A rule of the 



QUESTIONS. 153 

House of Representatives, however, permits a 
substitute to be offered for an amendment in the 
second degree. This amendment, by way of 
substitute (to which one amendment may also 
be offered), cannot be voted on until the origi- 
nal matter is perfected. It may, however, be 
withdrawn at any time before the question is 
taken. 

A substitute for any bill referred to a com- 
mittee may be reported back from the commit- 
tee with the original bill, in which case the sub- 
stitute alone is to be considered by the House, 
and is treated as an original bill. 

Table. 

The motion to lay on the table is among 
the most frequently offered motions in public 
assemblies. It is not amendable nor debatable, 
and has precedence of all other motions, ex- 
cept one of privilege or of adjournment. The 
Chair must put the question at once, and, if 
carried, the matter is postponed until the assem- 
bly vote to take it from the table, which lat- 
ter motion possesses no privilege. No surer 
method of defeating a measure when near the 



1,54 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

end of the session of a deliberative body can 
be found than to move that the question He on 
the table. In its primary sense, however, and 
in practical usage in some assemblies, motions 
to lay any matter on the table may be carried 
without prejudice as to its merits, having the 
effect simply to postpone it until a majority 
are found ready to consider it. 

In Congress, all business coming from the 
other House, and communications from officers 
of the government, are laid. on the table, unless 
referred to a committee, or (in rare cases) con- 
sidered without delay. A motion to lay any 
bill or resolution on the table is in order on its 
second or third reading. When a motion to 
reconsider a previous vote is laid on the table, 
the latter vote cannot be reconsidered, and is 
held to be a final disposition of the matter. 

The business on the Speaker's table embra- 
ces : first, messages from the President, and other 
executive communications ; second, messages 
from the Senate, and amendments proposed by 
the Senate to bills of the House ; third, bills 
and resolutions from the Senate ; fourth, en- 
grossed bills (which have passed the House), 



QUESTIONS. 155 

and bills from the Senate on their third read- 
ing; fifth, bills and resolutions of the House. 
The Clerk of the House must make a weekly 
printed statement of the resolutions and bills 
upon the Speaker's table, with a note of the 
orders and proceedings of the House upon each. 
Near the end of every session, there is a 
great accumulation of bills, resolutions, etc., 
both of the House and Senate, upon the Speak- 
er's table, in every stage of progress toward 
enactment. The greater part of these must 
usually remain undisposed of, going to swell 
the great limbo of bills that do not become 
laws. By the Senate rule, there must lie on 
the table one day for consideration, all resolu- 
tions, reports of committees, and discharges of 
committees from the consideration of subjects, 
unless, by unanimous consent, the Senate shall 
otherwise direct. 

Vetoes. 

A bill, if retained by the President over ten 
days (unless Congress adjourns in the mean- 
time), becomes a law upon a note of the fact 
registered with the bill in the Department of 



156 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

State. If a bill is returned with the President's 
objections (which must be done within ten 
days after he receives it) it must be sent to the 
House in which it originated. The vote must 
again be taken on the vetoed bill in both Houses, 
and a majority of two-thirds of the members 
present and voting is required to make it a law. 
This was so decided in the 33d Congress, in 
1856, in contravention to the claim that the 
constitutional majority of two-thirds implies 
two-thirds of the whole number of members. 

A " pocket veto," so-called, implies the 
withholding of the signature of the President 
from a bill reaching him at about the close of 
a session, and which he chooses not to approve. 
Congress having in the meanwhile adjourned. 

In Great Britain, while the Crown has the 
power, under the Constitution, to veto any act 
of Parliament, this prerogative has not been 
exercised since the year 1707. 

Withdrawal. 

The mover of any bill, resolution, motion or 
amendment, has the right to withdraw it if no 
one objects. If objected to, he may make a 



QUESTIONS. 157 

motion that he be granted permission to with- 
draw the matter submitted. If this motion is 
carried, the effect is to remove from considera- 
tion the matter and all subsidiary questions in- 
volved in it. The mover may also modify his 
motion before it is stated fully by the Chair, 
but not afterward, except on leave granted by 
the Assembly. By the rules of the House, any 
member may withdraw a motion or a bill at any 
time before the question is decided or amended, 
except after the previous question has been sec- 
onded. All incidental questions fall with the 
withdrawal of the main question. 

Writs. 

In Congress, a writ is a process of the House, 
signed by the Speaker, attested by the Clerk 
under the seal of the House, and served by the 
Sergeant-at-Arms. In the British Parliament, the 
writs for an election of new members are issued 
by the Speaker's warrant, addressed to the Clerk 
of the Crown, and by him forwarded to the local 
officers. Writs of summons for a new Parlia- 
ment, after a dissolution of that body, are formally 
issued by the Crown under the actual authority 



158 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

of the Privy Council. Writs of summons must 
be issued at least thirty-five days before the day 
fixed by them for the assembling of the new 
Parliament. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Debate. 

The proper control and limitation of debate 
is one of the functions of an assembly, to be al- 
ways discreetly exercised through the presiding 
officer and the rules. A too rigorous conjfine- 
ment or suppression of debate is apt to be 
regarded with jealousy, not only as impairing 
individual liberty, but as checking that freedom 
of discussion essential to bring out all sides of 
a question, and conduce to its proper under- 
standing by the assembly. How to avoid pro- 
lix, rambling and time-consuming speeches on 
the one hand, and at the same time give ample 
opportunity to discuss the merits of the question 
on the other, is the problem which continually 
calls for the tact of the presiding officer, and 
the judgment of the assembly. On this matter 
no stereotyped rule can be laid down, although, 
in societies and permanent bodies, it is usual to 
have some fixed limitation of the time allotted, 
both to written papers and to oral remarks. 

15<J 



160 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

These limitations may be laid down in the by- 
laws of the association, or they may be adopted 
from time to time at the meetings. It is to be 
remarked, however, that whether the limits as- 
signed to speeches or to papers be more or less 
formal and permanent as rules, there is always 
in practice a certain elasticity in applying them. 
The watch of the presiding officer may keep 
never so good time, but the tolerance or the 
good nature of the Chair will sometimes restrain 
him too long from the perhaps unwelcome an- 
nouncement that a gentleman's time has expired. 
Yet an undue indulgence to one speaker is un- 
just to others, and, where rules exist, it is the 
right of every member to insist, if need be, upon 
their enforcement by the presiding officer. It 
is always possible, however, to secure to an as- 
sembly the pleasure of hearing all of a speech 
or paper of unusual ability, or which provokes 
uncommon interest, by some one moving that 
the time of the speaker be extended. This can 
be effected only by unanimous consent, one ob- 
jection defeating the motion, which should be 
put thus : " It is moved and seconded that the 
time of the gentleman be extended. Is there 



DEBATE. IGl 

objection ? The Chair hears none, and the 
gentleman will proceed." Or, if not agreed to 
unanimously, the Chair will announce : " Ob- 
jection is made," when the speaker must take 
his seat, and the Chair will call for the next 
matter in order. 

It is an invariable rule for speakers in de- 
bate, that all remarks must be addressed to the 
Chair, and not to the assembly. Speeches are 
to be confined to the question pending before 
the body; if rambling remarks are made, or 
other questions are introduced, any member 
may call the speaker to order, or the Chairman 
may interpose with the suggestion that debate 
is to be confined to the question before the 
assembly. CaUing members by name is to be 
avoided; reference to others can easily be 
made with sufticient clearness, as, '-'•the ge?itle- 
man who spoke last; " " the gentle nia7i on my 
right; " " the getttleman who ope7ied^'' etc., al- 
though there is no rigid parliamentary rule to 
prevent using the actual names in ordinary 
assemblies. All personalities or severe reflec- 
tions upon members which may be construed 
into personal attack, or reflections upon mo- 



162 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

lives, are to be avoided. A disposition to quar- 
rel being unfortunately found in the constitu- 
tions of some persons, one of whom may 
chance to be a member of a society or assem- 
bly where debate is customary, things are often 
said in the heat of discussion which provoke 
bitter animosities, and, perhaps, involve other 
members in an unseemly controversy. This is 
never productive of anything but harm to the 
objects of the association, and of regret to its 
members. How far a presiding officer can in- 
terpose to check personalities is a matter upon 
which no rule can be laid down, but it calls for 
the best discretion of the Chair. The only 
eifectual safeguard against the consumption of 
time in fruitless wrangles, whether upon person- 
ahties, points of order, or methods of proceed- 
ing, is to be found in the good judgment and 
forbearance of the members, and their zealous 
adherence to the objects for which they come 
together. 

The number of speeches which any one 
member can make on the same question is 
usually limited by regulation. This rests upon 
the obvious fact that an unlimited liberty of 



DEBATE. 163 

Speech by any one member may prevent 
others from enjoying their just right to be 
heard. The more prevalent rule is to allow 
two speeches only to each member, although 
one only is sometimes the limitation. As to 
time, the limitation to ten mmutes is more 
general than any other, although five-minute 
speeches, when in Committee of the Whole, 
have the sanction of the rules both of the 
Senate and of the House of Representatives. 
Permission to speak longer or more frequently 
may be granted by a majority of the assembly, 
if desired (or by unanimous consent), but the 
motion to grant this permission is not debatable. 
A very proper proceeding is for the assembly to 
fix in advance an hour at which debate shall 
be closed, thus securing a most desirable dis- 
patch of business. 

The motions which are not debatable are 
the following : 

1. The motion for the previous question. 

2. To lay on the table, or to take from the 
table any matter. 

3. To suspend a rule, or the rules. 

4. An appeal from the decision of the 



164 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

Chair, when it relates to violation of the rules, 
or to disorder, or to the priority of business, or 
when the previous question was pending at the 
time the appeal was taken. 

5. To adjourn. 

6. To fix the time to which to adjourn 
(whenever another question is before the as- 
sembly). 

7. To take a recess. 

8. Questions of order arising after a mo- 
tion is made for the previous question, or upon 
undebatable questions. 

9. Questions relating to the priority of 
business. 

It is a well recognized rule of courtesy that 
the mover of any proposition is first entitled to 
the floor to discuss it. That the mover is again 
entitled to the floor to close the debate, though 
less generally recognized, is made a rule of the 
House of Representatives, in the case of the 
member reporting the measure under consider- 
ation from a committee. The same rule enti- 
tles him to one hour to close, notwithstanding 
he may have used an hour in opening. 

After the question has been opened by the 



DEBATE. 165 

proposer, the presiding officer of the assembly 
is to recognize other speakers successively; and, 
although there is no fixed rule of parliamentary 
law prescribing it, it is recognized as proper, in 
case of two or more rising at once to speak, for 
the presiding officer to recognize the member 
farthest from the Chair. It is also usual, 
though not fixed by rule, for those favoring and 
opposing the proposition before the assembly to 
alternate in speaking. 

The House of Representatives has what is 
known as the one-hour rule, first adopted in 
1847, which provides that no member can oc- 
cupy more than one hour in debate on any ques- 
tion in the House. It would be a great mistake to 
infer that this secures any member who wishes 
to be heard the right to occupy an hour. The 
life of a Congress is short, and in practice a very 
few members only secure an hour, the rest being 
cut oft" by the previous question, usually asking 
and procuring " leave to print," or being allowed 
a few minutes of the time of the member who is 
entitled to an hour to close the debate. Another 
rule of the House is that no member shall 
speak more than once to the question, unless he 



166 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

be the mover, in which case he may speak in 
reply, but not until every member choosing 
shall have spoken. Both of these last named 
rules, however, may be and often are suspended 
by unanimous consent (unless the House is 
pressing toward a vote). Another rule pro- 
vides that the Speaker is to name the member 
who is first to speak, as " the geiitleinan from 
Maine,''' etc., when two or more members claim 
the floor at once. No debate is allowed after 
the House has ordered the previous question, 
except one speech from the member reporting 
the measure ; but, as he is entitled to an entire 
hour, he frequently yields a certain number of 
minutes of his time to several members for short 
speeches. No member may call another by 
name in debate, or call attention to the views of 
the other House (>), but both of these rules 
are transgressed with great frequency. Both 
Houses have a rule that any member transgress- 
ing in debate the rules of the body, shall be 

(i) Jefferson's Manual says : " It is a breach of order in debate 
to notice what has been said on the same subject in the other House, 
or the particular votes or majority on it there ; because the opinion of 
each House should be left to its own independency, not to be influ- 
enced by the proceedings of the other." 



DEBATE. 167 

called to order by the presiding officer (or any 
member may call him to order), when he must 
sit down, and cannot proceed unless leave is 
granted. This leave must be on motion, and 
determined without debate. The words ex- 
cepted to must be indicated by the member 
calling to order, and taken down in writing 
and read at the Clerk's desk. In the Senate, no 
Senator may interrupt another in debate without 
his 'consent, and to obtain such consent he 
must first address the presiding officer. Rule 
14, of the House of Representatives, requires 
that " a member shall confine himself to the 
question under debate, and avoid personaHty," 
but in Committee of the Whole on the state of 
the Union, he is not bound to confine himself 
to the question under debate, except when a 
special order is pending. 

In the Senate, debate is without hmit unless 
a special order is made curtailing the length of 
speeches, and when considering the calendar 
of bills and resolutions as a daily order, when 
each Senator is entitled to speak but five min- 
utes, and only once upon any question. No 
Senator can speak more than twice on any 



168 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

question on the same day, without leave of the 
Senate. Another Senate rule provides that dur- 
ing the morning hour motions to proceed to 
consider any matter must be decided without 
debate upon the merits of the subject proposed 
to be taken up. 

Interruptions in the House to the member 
speaking are quite frequent, but do not appear 
to be provided for in the rules. The custom- 
ary mode of interruption is for a member to 
call out: "Will the gentleman yield?" or 

" Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman from 

yield to me for a question ?" If the member 
holding the floor refuses, the Chair announces : 

" The gentleman from declines to yield," 

and the speech is proceeded with. 

A rule of the House permits members to 
speak, when debating, at their seats, or from any 
part of the floor, or at the Clerk's desk. 

In the British Parliament, while the Speaker 
must be addressed in the Commons, a peer ad- 
dresses the House of Lords in general — as, "J/y 
Lords y Debate in the Lords depends upon 
the will of the body, which may give preference 
to any peer seeking the floor. In the House of 



DEBATE. 169 

Commons, the Speaker must recognize the 
member who first rises. As it often happens 
that several members rise at once, the member 
who is first in his eye is called upon. The rule 
of the Commons is that only one speech 
from any member on the same question can be 
heard except in Committee of the Whole. No 
member is permitted to be called by name in 
either House ; the Lords are referred to by their 
rank, as " the noble Earl/^ members are des- 
ignated in the other House by the place 
they represent, as " the honorable gentle??ian, 
the 7nember for Manchester J^ While speaking, 
members of the Lords and Commons remove 
their hats, and resume them upon concluding 
and taking their seats. No reading of written 
speeches is permitted in either House of Parlia- 
ment. Extracts from documents may be read, 
but members must debate questions in the literal 
sense without reading manuscript remarks. 

This rule is almost reversed in Congress, 
where written speeclies are practically rather the 
rule in both Houses, and debate in its legitimate 
sense the exception. 

In France, members of the Corps Legislatif 

(6) 



170 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

speak from the tribune, not from their seats. 
AHst of the Deputies proposing to speak at any 
session is kept by the President, who recognizes 
them in the order of their inscription on the 
list, except that members are to speak alternately 
for and against the measure under considera- 
tion. This rule does not prevail in the parlia- 
mentary bodies either of England or America. 
The Ministers are awarded the floor whenever 
they claim it, although it may interfere with the 
sequence of the Hst of speakers ; but a mem- 
ber of the opposition may always follow the 
speech of a Minister. The rules prohibit dis- 
order or clamor during discussion, but the rule 
is largely violated. If the Chamber becomes 
tumultuous, and the eftbrts of the President to 
restore order are ineftective, he puts on his hat ; if 
the disorder continues, he declares the session 
adjourned for an hour, at the end of which 
members resume their places. If the tumult 
breaks out again, the President must adjourn 
the Chamber to the next day. 



CHAPTER X. 

Voting. 

The sense of an assembly is always to be 
ascertained by its votes. In general, whether at 
formal or informal meetings, the presiding offi- 
cer is to put every question to vote either with- 
out debate (if the rules so require), or, if it is 
a debatable question, when members have 
ceased to speak, or when the time allotted for 
debate is exhausted. In calling for a vote, it is 
usual for the Chair to inquire : " Are you ready 
for the question? " Which is usually responded 
to by one or more members calling out : " Ques- 
tion ! " The following are the principal forms 
of taking a vote : 

1 . Viva voce, when the presiding officer calls 
successively the ayes and the noes, and declares 
the motion carried or lost, according to the pre- 
ponderance of voices. 

2. (In a small assembly), by a show of 
hands, each side in succession holding up the 
right hand and being counted. 

171 



172 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

3. By calling for the ayes to rise and stand 
until counted, after which the ayes are required 
to be seated, and those in the negative to rise 
for a count by the Chair. 

4. By tellers, the Chair appointing two mem- 
bers to count the voters as they pass between 
them, those in favor of the measure going first, 
and those opposed after, the number on each 
side being reported by the tellers and announced 
by the Chair. 

5. By calling the yeas and nays, each mem- 
ber answering aye or no, in alphabetical order, 
when the vote is registered in a formal record, 
summed up by the Clerk or Secretary, and an- 
nounced by the Chair. 

6. By ballot, or secret written vote, the 
folded papers being collected by the Secretary 
or by members appointed for the purpose. The 
last named form of voting is used in balloting 
for members, or in the election of officers or 
committees by the assembly itself. 

When the assembly has not ordered the vote 
to be taken in any particular way, it is custom- 
ary for the Chair to call for it viva voce. If in 
doubt as to which side is in the majority, or if 



VOTING. 173 

any member calls for a division, the Chair next 
asks the members to vote aye or no by rising. 
Taking the vote by passing through tellers is 
peculiar to legislative bodies. Whenever a 
record of the vote is desired, any member may 
call for the yeas and nays ; and taking a vote in 
this manner is a constitutional right or obliga- 
tion in both Houses of Congress, when required 
by one-fifth of the members present. In ordi- 
nary assemblies, however, it appears to require a 
majority to order a vote to be taken by yeas 
and nays. 

Taking a vote or making a nomination " by 
acclamation," although common in political 
conventions, is hardly worthy of the dignity 
of a deliberative body. And the prevalent 
usage of moving to make a nomination unani- 
mous has been severely criticised as suppress- 
ing the convictions of the minority who have 
been out-voted. 

In general, a majority of the votes cast is 
sufficient for the adoption of any proposition. 
But rules are sometimes adopted by which the 
following motions require a vote of two-thirds 
of the assembly in order to carry them : 



174 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

1 . To amend or to suspend the rules. 

2. To order the previous question, or to 
limit debate, (usually requires a majority only). 

3. To consider any question out of its 
proper order as fixed by the order of business. 

4. To appoint a special order in advance to 
consider any question. 

5. To decline to consider a question. 

6. To make certain nominations ('). 

The general principle is, that no motion hav- 
ing the effect to change the established rules 
and customs should be carried by a mere ma- 
jority, but should have the sanction of approxi- 
mate unanimity. As the right of free discussion 
upon the merits of any question before taking 
action thereon is an established custom, the 
limiting or closing of debate is sometimes held 
to require a two-thirds vote, although in the 
House of Representatives (and as a general 

(i) In the National Conventions of the Democratic party, a ma- 
jority consisting of two-thirds of the delegates has been required to 
nominate candidates for President and Vice-President, ever since 
1832. The majority rule, however, has always prevailed in the Re- 
publican National Conventions. What is known as the unit rule in 
these Conventions, requiring the vote of each State delegation to be 
cast as a unit (/. e., all for some one candidate dictated by the ma- 
jority of the delegation), has been practically abandoned for the 
freer system of permitting each delegate to vote as he pleases. 



VOTING. 175 

rule elsewhere), the previous question is ordered 
by a simple majority. In the Senate, where 
there is no previous question, not even a two- 
thirds vote could abridge the privilege of de- 
bate. 

A two-thirds vote of Senators present is 
required to convict on an impeachment, to ex- 
pel a member, to ratify treaties, to pass a bill 
over the veto, and to propose amendments to 
the Constitution. The same is required in the 
House in cases of expulsion, veto, constitu- 
tional amendments, making a special order sus- 
pending the rules, to dispense with call of com- 
mittees in the morning hour, and to dispense 
with private business on Fridays. Every Sena- 
tor is required to vote when the yeas and nays 
are called ; if he declines, he is required to 
assign his reasons therefor, after which the pre- 
siding officer submits the question to the Senate : 
" Shall the Senator, for the reasons assigned by 
him, be excused from voting?" which must 
be decided without debate. No Senator is per- 
mitted to vote after the result is announced by 
the President, and he cannot give reasons for 
his vote ; these two rules cannot be suspended 



176 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

even by unanimous consent. A Senator " may, 
for sufficient reasons, with unanimous consent, 
change or withdraw his vote." 

In the House, votes on minor questions are 
almost always taken in the first instance viva 
voce, by the sound. If this is inconclusive, the 
Speaker calls for a rising vote, either of his own 
motion, or at the call of any member for a 
division. After this, when the vote is announced, 
any member dissatisfied with the result may 
demand tellers, the rule providing that a vote 
must be taken by tellers if demanded by one- 
fifth of a quorum. It is customary when, on a 
division, less than half the House are counted 
as voting, for the Speaker at once to order tell- 
ers. He must name two members on opposite 
sides of the question to act as tellers ; these two 
meet and shake hands in the middle aisle; the 
Chair requests all members voting in the affirm- 
ative to pass between the tellers, who count 
them and report to the Clerk's desk ; next, the 
negative voters are summoned to pass between 
the tellers ; this count being reported, the Chair 
declares the result. No record of individual 
names is kept in voting by tellers, or by rising. 



VOTING. 177 

In the Senate, no vote is ever taken by tellers. 
In the House of Commons, the Speaker ap- 
points two tellers from each party (four in all) to 
count the members when dividing the House, 
when the viva voce vote is not accepted. Mem- 
bers in favor of the measure before the House, 
then withdraw to the lobby on the right, and 
those opposed withdraw to the left. As mem- 
bers file back into the House, they are counted 
by the tellers and their names recorded by the 
Clerks. The result is announced by the Speaker, 
and alphabetical lists of the names are printed 
with the votes and proceedings. This system 
combines the yea and nay vote with a vote by 
tellers. No member is allowed to vote who 
was not in the House when the question was 
put ; but a " division bell " is rung by the door- 
keeper whenever the House is about to divide. 
This signal is heard through the neighboring 
rooms, and scattered members hasten to be 
present at the division before the doors are 
locked. The time allowed for this notice is two 
minutes, measured by a sand-glass ; when that 
has run out, the doors are at once closed, and 
the Speaker must again put the question before 



178 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

the House by ayes and noes, as the rule pro- 
vides that no absentees on the first call can vote 
unless the questio-n is again put. If the num- 
bers on a division are equal, the Speaker of the 
Commons must give the casting vote. In the 
House of Lords, if there is a tie, the question . 
is lost. 

In the French Chambers, any member may 
require a division, which, in the first instance, . 
is always by a rising vote. This vote is in 
order upon all questions, unless twenty mem- 
bers demand an open ballot, or fifty members a 
secret ballot ; or, unless the vote by rising, after 
being taken twice, results in a tie, in which 
case any member may demand a ballot. In 
the open ballot, each member is fiirnished with 
white tickets fon affirmative votes, and blue 
tickets for negative, on all of which his name 
is printed. The messengers collect these bal- 
lots in an urn, which is opened at the tribune, 
the Secretaries counting the ballots of each 
color, and the President announcing the result, 
while the names printed on the tickets furnish 
a record of each member's vote. The secret 
ballot is taken by white and black balls — the 



VOTING. 179 

white signifying votes in the affirmative, and 
the black the negative. Members deposit their 
balls in an urn, when the Secretaries turn them 
out into a basket, and count the black and 
white balls, announcing the result to the Presi- 
dent, who proclaims it to the Chamber. 

In Congress, it is a constitutional recjuire- 
ment that the yeas and nays shall be entered 
on the journal in both Houses when the vote 
is taken on any bill vetoed by the President ; 
also, that the yeas and nays in either House 
shall be entered on the journals when desired 
by one-fifth of the members present. In the 
House, it is usual for members to demand a 
vote by yeas and nays on all important ques- 
tions, or when it is sought to make a record, or 
when not satisfied with the result of a division 
by other methods, or, finally and very fre- 
quently, when members in the opposition wish 
to consume time, or to delay the passage of 
a measure. The rules of the House impera- 
tively require that the vote shall be taken 
by yeas and nays on the passage of general 
appropriation bills, revenue bills, and bills for 
the improvement of rivers and harbors. Usage 



180 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

permits the yeas and nays to be demanded even 
while a vote is being taken on a division by 
tellers, or after the announcement, before pass- 
ing to any other business. It is not in order to 
repeat a demand for the yeas and nays which 
has been once refused. No debate or remark 
or point of order can interrupt the roll-call, 
after the first member has answered to his 
name, on a call for the yeas and nays. A mem- 
ber may change his vote at any time befo're 
the Chair has finally announced the decision 
of the question ; and he may demand that 
an erroneous record of his vote be corrected, 
after the announcement of the result, if the 
House has not proceeded to other business. 
Otherwise, the correction must be made on the 
journal when it is read for approval or amend- 
ment the next morning. The time consumed 
in a call of the yeas and nays is nearly forty 
minutes. It includes calling the roll by sur- 
names- (for the required record), checking the 
names as members answer Aye or No, sum- 
ming up, calling of absentees a second 
time, announcement of members paired, and 
reading the names of all those voting in the 



VOTING. 181 

affirmative and negative, by the Clerk. Vari- 
ous ingenious plans to curtail this enormous 
waste of time by the roll-call have been pro- 
posed, the most modern invention being an 
annunciator with electric wires, the member 
touching a button at his desk, and the vote 
being recorded instantaneously, yea or nay, for 
the whole House. The House, however, has 
never countenanced any substitute for viva voce 
voting, although the roll-calls so frequently 
repeated on party divisions sometimes consume 
more than half the working time of a day's 
session. After completion of the roll-call, the 
names of members who have failed to answer 
must be called again, when the announcement 
of " pairs " is in order. 

The pairing of members in a legislative body 
is an agreement between two members of 
opposite politics, or who would vote on oppo- 
site sides of any question, to withhold their 
votes ; such pairs leaving the result of the vote 
unaffected. One or both of the members thus 
paired may be absent. This system has never 
been recognized by parliamentary rules until 
the 46th Congress (in 1880), when the 8th rule 



182 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

of the House of Representatives required that 
pairs should be announced by the Clerks from 
a written list furnished him, signed by the mem- 
ber making the statement. Usually each party 
appoints a committee of one, whose duty it is 
to secure and record pairs for absent or indis- 
posed members. 

In Parliament, pairing prevails to a greater 
extent than in Congress, members pairing with 
each other not only upon particular measures, 
but in case of absenteeism, for weeks and even 
months at a time. The system has long pre- 
vailed, but it is not recognized by any rule of 
either House of Parliament, being merely a 
private arrangement. In the lower House of 
Congress, pairs between members are published 
in the official record on each division of yeas 
and nays. They are not recognized by the 
Senate rules, and are not entered in the journal 
with the votes, although long and constantly in 
use. But Senators frequently announce that they 
are paired, as a reason for not voting. 

Every member of the House is required to 
vote, unless excused on a motion made before 
division and decided without debate, or unless 



VOTING. 183 

he has direct personal or pecuniary interest in 
the event of the question. 

When the vote in an assembly is evenly 
divided on any question, the general parliament- 
ary rule is that the question is lost. This is 
always the case if the presiding officer has 
already voted as a member of the body ; nor is 
it settled that a presiding officer who has not 
voted, has the casting vote in case of a tie, un- 
less this power of decision is conferred upon 
him by the constitution or rules governing the 
body. 

In the Senate, the Vice-President has no 
vote when presiding over the Senate, unless 
that body be equally divided, when he may 
cast his vote to decide the question. But this 
is a constitutional provision. The rules of the 
Senate confer no power on the President pro 
tempore to decide questions as presiding officer, 
and if the votes are equal, the question is lost. 
This goes upon the principle that the President 
pro tempore votes as a Senator, and in fact his 
name is always called when the yeas and nays 
are ordered. In the House of Representatives, 
the Speaker is required to vote only when his 



184 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

vote would be decisive if counted, or when the 
House votes by ballot ; and in all cases of a tie 
vote, the question is lost. Thus, if 120 votes 
are cast on each side of a pending question, and 
the Speaker holds with the affirmative, he must 
vote, thus carrying the question; if he holds 
with the negative, however, his vote would not 
alter the result, the question being already lost, 
and he is not required to vote. The Speaker 
has the right to direct his name to be called on 
any question, if he desires to be recorded, but 
in practice his right to vote is seldom exercised, 
unless, in important questions, he desires to 
make a record. 

If the question that there is no quorum 
present, be raised by any member when a vote 
is taken, the Senate rule provides that the Chair 
shall direct the roll to be called to ascertain the 
presence of a quorum. If it is found that a 
quorum is not present, no vote can be taken 
except by unanimous consent, until a quorum 
appears. 

In the House, a majority of the members 
chosen constitutes a quorum, which thus con- 
sists of 163 members, the full number of the 



VOTING. 185 

present House being 325. If the (question of 
the presence of a quorum is not raised, the 
journal may be read, and motions, debate and 
other proceedings may go on until some call 
for a division or vote discloses the absence of 
a quorum. After that, no motion is in order 
except for a call of the House (to compel the 
attendance of a majority of the body), or to 
adjourn. By the 15th rule of the House, in the 
absence of a quorum, fifteen members, includ- 
ing the Speaker, are authorized to compel the 
attendance of absentees. 

The quorum of a Committee of the Whole 
House is the same as that of the House ; and if 
the committee finds itself without a quorum, the 
chairman must cause the roll to be called, when 
the committee must rise, and the chairman 
must report the names of the absentees to the 
House, to be entered on the journal. If, how- 
ever, a quorum appears on a call of the roll, 
the committee must resume its sitting without 
further order of the House. 

The quorum of the House on one extra- 
ordinary occasion is required by the Constitu- 
tion (Article 12) to consist of a member or 



186 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

members from two-thirds of the States. This 
is in case of the election of a President devolv- 
ing upon the House of Representatives, in con- 
sequence of no candidate receiving a majority 
of the Electoral vote. In choosing the Presi- 
dent, each State has one vote, and a majority 
of all the States is necessary to a choice. In 
like manner, the quorum of the Senate, for the 
purpose of choosing the Vice-President, is made 
by the Constitution to consist of two-thirds of 
the whole number of Senators, a majority of 
whom is necessary to a choice. 

Voting in legislative bodies is rarely required 
to be by ballot, and in this country balloting, 
in the case of parliamentary bodies, appears 
to be confined to the election of officers. In cor- 
porate bodies, both private and municipal, elec- 
tion by ballot has long prevailed, while in delib- 
erative and legislative bodies, where questions 
are decided in the affirmative or negative, the 
reason for the ballot is not apparent. Voting 
should be open, not secret, in parliamentary 
bodies, to enforce just responsibility, and to bring 
the acts of their representatives before each 
constituency in the clearest manner. In thir- 



VOTING. 187 

teen States, there is a constitutional provision 
requiring the Legislature to vote viva voce; these 
are Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, In- 
diana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, 
North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and 
Texas. In the other States, the Legislature is 
left to regulate its own methods of voting. 

The number of votes required to pass an act 
in a legislative body varies greatly. The con- 
stitutions of some States require, in order to 
render a law vaHd, that it shall have been passed 
by a majority of all the members elected to the 
Legislature. In both branches of Congress, 
however, a majority of all the members present 
(if a quorum of the whole House) may pass 
any measure which is in order under the rules. 
The result is, that a law may be actually made 
by little more than one-fourth of the Senators 
and Representatives elected. In fact, twenty 
Senators and eighty-two Representatives, voting 
in the affirmative, may pass the most important 
act of legislation, in strict conformity to the 
rules. The rule that a majority is required to 
elect a Senator, in State I>egislatures, is pre- 
scribed by the laws of the United States. 



188 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

In the British Parhament, there is no require- 
ment as to the number of votes necessary to 
render valid an act of Parliament. On the con- 
trary, such rules as do prevail (although liable 
to change) permit forty members in the House 
of Commons to constitute a quorum for legis- 
lation, and three only in the House of Lords. 
In France, an absolute majority of the whole 
number of members elected to the Legislative 
Body is required to render any act they may 
pass valid. 



APPENDIX 



Brief Example of a Meeting Con- 
ducted under Parliament- 
ary Rules. 



[Designed to illustrate only the simpler forms of proceeding, and the 
elementary rules for conducting business.] 



A member. The time appointed for this meeting 
having arrived, gentlemen will please come to order. I 
move that Mr. A. B. take the Chair. 

Another member. I second the motion. 

First member. It is moved and seconded that Mr. 

A. B. act as Chairman; as many as are in favor of the 
motion will please say Aye. 

(A general response is heard in the affirmative.) 
First member. As many as are opposed to the mo- 
tion will say No. 

(Few or no voices in the negative.) 

First member. The motion is carried, and Mr. A. 

B. will please take the Chair. 

(Or, a member calling the meeting to order, may ask: 

** Will some one nominate a Cliairnian to preside over 
1S9 



190 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

this meeting? " Which being done, he puts the ques- 
tion to vote as before.) 

Air. A. B. (in the Chair, with or without a speech of 
thanks, or remarks upon the business upon which the 
assembly is convened) : Gentlemen will please come to 
order. Is it the pleasure of the meeting to elect a Sec- 
retary ? 

A member. I nominate Mr. C. D. as Secretary, 

Another juember. I second the motion. 

The Chair. It is moved and seconded that Mr. C. 
D. act as Secretary of this meeting. As many as are in 
favor of the motion will say Aye. (After a pause.) As 
many as are opposed to the motion will say No. 

The ayes have it, and Mr. C. D. will please act as 
Secretary. 

(If several names are proposed, either for Chairman 
or Secretary, the vote should be called for upon the names 
in succession, beginning with the first name proposed.) 

The Secretary takes a seat near the Chair. He 
should have a table provided for notes, and a record 
book or journal, or blank paper, for the proceedings. 

The Chair. Is it the pleasure of the meeting to 
appoint any committees ? 

Mr. E. F. Mr. Chairman, I move that a commit- 
tee of three be appointed on the order of business, and 
a committee of five on resolutioias. 

A member. I second that motion. 

The Chair. Gentlemen, it is moved and seconded 
that a committee of three be appointed on the order of 



APPENDIX. 191 

business, and a committee of five to prepare resolutions 
for the consideration of the meeting. Are you ready for 
the question ? 

(Amid calls of Question! (Question!) 

A vieinber. Mr. Chairman, I move to amend the lirst 
motion by striking out " three" and inserting "five," so 
that the committee on business may eml)race five mem- 
bers. 

Another member. I second the amendment. 

The Chair. It is moved to amend the resolution by 
striking out "three" and inserting "five." As many as are 
in favor of the amendment will say Aye. (After a pause.) 
Those opposed to the amendment v\-ill say No. (After 
a pause.) The ayes have it, and the amendment is 
adopted. The question now recurs on the original mo- 
tion as amended, that a committee of five members be 
appointed on the order of business, and one of five 
members on resolutions. As many as are in favor of 
the adoption' of the motion will say Aye. (A general 
aye.) As many as are opposed will say No. The ayes 
have it, and the motion is adopted. How shall these 
committees be appointed ? 

Several members. By the Chair. 

The Chairman. It is moved that the Chair appoint 
the members of these two committees. All in favor of 
that motion will say Aye; contrary. No. The ayes have 
it, and the motion is carried. The Chair appoints as the 
committee on order of business, Messrs. E. F. chair- 
man (and four others, naming them), and as a commit- 
tee on resolutions, the Chair appoints Messrs. G. II. 



192 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

chairman (and four others, naming them). The com- 
mittees are requested to confer and report to the meet- 
ing as early as convenient. (The members appointed 
on each committee, headed by its chairman, withdraw 
for consultation.) 

A uieinber. Mr. Chairman, I move the adoption of 
the following resolution (reading it). 

The Chair. The resolution will be referred to the 
committee on resolutions when appointed. (It is placed 
in the hands of the Secretary.) 

A member. Gentlemen, on this important and inter- 
esting occasion 

llie Chairman. The gentleman is out of order; he 
will please address the Chair. 

The member. Mr. Chairman, on this occasion so 
important to 

The Chairman. The gentleman is again out of 
order; there is no motion before the meeting. 

Another viember. Mr. Chairman, I move that the 
gentleman be invited to address the meeting. 

TJie Chairman. The motion is made that Mr. 

be invited to speak. Is there objection? (After a 

pause.) The Chair hears none; (and Mr. makes a 

speech followed, perhaps, by other gentlemen, who 
speak by unanimous consent). 

(During the speaking, there being much confusion 
in the hall) — 

A member. Mr. Chairman, I rise to a point of order. 

The Chair. The gentleman will state his point of 
order. 



APPENDIX. 193 

The ineinher. My point of order is, that we, in this 
part of the hall, can hear very little of what is going on 
on account of the talking and moving about. 

The Chair (rapping on the table). The point of 
order is well taken. The meeting will be in order. 
Members will take their seats and suspend conversation. 
(After a pause, quiet being restored) — 

The Chair, The gentleman will now proceed. 

(Here the speaking is interrupted by the return of 
the committee on the order of business, headed by its 
chairman, who addresses the Chair): 

Mr. Chairman, the committee on the order of busi- 
ness have agreed upon a report (handing up a paper). 

The Chair. The Secretary will read the report of 
the committee. 

The Secretary reads : 

1. The officers already chosen are continued as per- 
manent Chairman and Secretary of the meeting. 

2. No member may speak more than once to the 
same question. 

3. Debate is limited to ten minutes for each speech. 

4. When the previous question is ordered by a ma- 
jority vote, debate shall ab once cease, and the Chair 
shall take the vote on the pending question. 

5. In ruling upon points of order or precedence, 
the Chair is to be governed by the rules of the House 
of Representatives, when applicable. 

TJie Chair. You have heard the report of the com- 
mittee. What is the pleasure of the meeting ? 



194 * PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

A member. Mr. Chairman, I move that the report 
be adopted. 

Another member. I second that motion. 

The Chair. It is moved and seconded that the re- 
port just read on the order of business be adopted as 
the rules for the conduct of business. Are you ready 
for the question ? 

Several tnembers. Question! Question! 

The Chair. As many as are in favor of tlie adop- 
tion of the report will say Aye. 

(Loud responses of aye.') 

As many as are opposed to the adoption of the report 
w^ill say No. 

(No response). 

The Chair. The ayes have it, and the report of the 
committee on the order of business is adopted. 

(The committee on resolutions, through their chair- 
man, report a series of five resolutions, embodying the 
sense of the meeting on the subject before it.) 

The Chajr. The Secretary (or the chairman of the 
committee), will read the resolutions. 

The Chair (after the reading). The resolutions are 
before the meeting. Are there any remarks to be made 
upon them ? 

(After discussion, and the adoption or rejection of 
several amendments) — 

The Chair. If there are no further remarks or mo- 
tions, the Chair will put the question on the adoption of 
the resolutions. 



APPENDIX. 195 

A nieniber. Mr. Chainnan, I move a division ot tlie 
question. I call for a separate vote on the second reso- 
lution. 

The Chair. A separate vote is called for on the 
second resolution. As many as are in favor of taking 
the question separately on that resolution will say Aye. 
(After a pause. ) Those of a contrary opinion will say 
No. The ayes have it. As many as are in favor of the 
adoption of the second resolution will say Aye. (Re- 
sponses of aye. ) As many as are opposed to the adop- 
tion of the second resolution will say No. The ayes ap- 
pear to have it. 

(Calls of Division! Division!) 

The Chair. As many as are in favor of the adop- 
tion of the second resolution will rise and stand until 
they are counted. 

The Chair. Thirty-one gentlemen in the affirmative. 
The ayes will be seated and the noes will rise. (After a 
count. ) 

The Chair. There are fifty-two voting in the nega- 
tive. The resolution is lost. The question now recurs 
on the adoption of the other resolutions as amended, 
leaving out the second resolution. As many as are in 
favor of the adoption of the resolutions will say Aye. 
(A general response of aye.^ As many as are opposed 
to the adoption of the resolutions will say No. (A few 
scattering noes are heard.) 

The Chair. The ayes have it, and the resolutions 
are adopted. 



196 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

A member. Mr. Chairman, I now move that the 
meeting proceed to consider (stating some question). 

Another member. I second the motion. 

The Chair. It is moved and seconded that the 
meeting consider (the subject named). 

A third member. Mr. Chairman, I move that the sub- 
ject referred to in the motion be indefinitely postponed. 

The Chair. The question is on the motion to post- 
pone indefinitely the consideration of ; (puts the 

question in form as before, and declares it carried or 
lost, as the case may be). 

A member. Mr. Chairman, I move the adoption of 
the following resolution (reading it). 

Another member. I second the motion. 

The Chair. It is moved and seconded that the res- 
olution sent to the Chair be adopted; are you ready for 
the question ? 

(A member rises to debate the resolution, and is re- 
plied to. After considerable discussion, developing 
much difference of opinion) — 

A member. Mr. Chairman, I move to lay the reso- 
lution on the table. 

Another member. I second the motion. 

The Chair. It is moved and seconded that the res- 
olution before the meeting be laid on the table. 

A f?iember. Mr. Chairman, I rise to oppose the mo 
tion to lay on the table, which would have the effect — 

The Chair. The gentleman is not in order; a mo- 
tion to lay on the table is not debatable. 



APPENDIX. 197 

A member. Mr. Chairman, I rise to a point of order. 

The Chair. The gentleman wili state the point of 
order. 

The member. I make the point of order that discus- 
sion should be allowed on the motion, that the meeting 
may know the reasons why they are asked not to con- 
sider it. 

The Chair. The Chair overrules the point of order. 
No discussion is in order upon a motion to lay on the 
table. 

The member. I appeal from the decision of the 
Chair. 

The Chair. The Chair will put the question on the 
appeal, only remarking that his decision in overruling 
the point of order and holding that the motion to lay on 
the table is not debatable, is based upon the rule of the 
House of Representatives, sustained by the uniform 
usage of parliamentary bodies . The question is: " Shall 
the decision of the Chair stand as the judgment of the 
meeting? " All who are in favor of sustaining the Chair 
will say Aye. (General response of aye.^ Those op- 
posed to the ruling of the Chair will say No. (One 
negative vote. ) 

The Chair. The ayes have it, and the decision of 
the Chair is sustained. The question now recurs upon 
the motion to lay upon the table the resolution sent to 
the Chair. As many as are in favor of laying the reso- 
lution on the table will say Aye. (After a pause.) As 
many as are opposed to laying the resolution on the 



198 PARLIAMENTARY RULES. 

table will say No. The ayes have it, and the resolution 
is laid on the table. 

A niefjiber. Mr. Chairman, I hold in my hand a 
paper which I ask permission, at this stage of the pro- 
ceedings, to read. 

The Chair. That requires unanimous consent, or, 
in its absence, leave to read by a vote of the assembly. 
Is there objection ? 

A member. I object. 

The Chair. Objection is made. 

A member. Mr. Chairman, I move that leave be 
granted to read the paper in question. (The motion is 
seconded.) 

The Chair. It is moved and seconded that permis- 
sion be granted to read the paper offered. 

The member who made the motion. Mr. Chairman, 
I rise to withdraw the motion that the paper be read. 

The Chair. The Chair thinks that the motion can- 
not be withdrawn if objection is made, except by leave 
to withdraw, after putting the question of such leave to 
vote. Is there objection to the withdrawal of the mo- 
tion ? 

A member. I object. 

Another member. Mr. Chairman, I think, with all 
due respect to the ruling of the Chair, that in this case 
he is mistaken. We have adopted the rules of the 
House of Representatives, wherever applicable. Rule 
XVI of the House Manual prescribes that "when a 
motion has been made * * * it shall then be in 



APPENDIX. 199 

possession of the House, but may be withdrawn at any 
time before a decision or amendment." 

The Chair. The Chair stands corrected. The rule 
is as stated by the gentleman, and, of course, overrides 
the more generally received practice that the mover of 
any question cannot withdraw it after it has been stated 
by the Chair and is in possession of the assembly. The 
motion is withdrawn, and there is no question before 
the meeting. 

A member. Mr. Chairman, I move that we do now 
adjourn. 

Another member. Mr. Chairman, before that motion 
is put I desire — 

The Chair. The gentleman is out of order; the mo- 
tion to adjourn is not debatable, but must be put with- 
out delay. The only way in which other business or de- 
bate can be brought forward is by voting down the mo- 
tion for adjournment. As many as are in favor of the 
motion to adjourn will say Aye. (Loud responses of 
aye.^ As many as are opposed to the motion to adjourn 
will say No. (A feeble response.) The ayes have it, 
and the meeting stands adjourned. 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Absentees 89-91 

Adjournment ..20,82 

when not in order 82 

in Congress 82, 83 

in Parliament... 83 

Alternates 90 

Amendments 83, 88 

by substitution 84 

by inserting new matter 84 

motions to amend, precedence of 85 

germane to the subject, or otherwise ^5, 86 

limitation of debate upon 87 

requiring a second, or otherwise 87 

in the third degree not admissible 83 

Appeal 88, 89 

Assembly, membership of an 9 

Attendance 89-9 1 

Ballot, voting by 1 72, 186 

Bills 91-102 

always referred to committees 92 

how offered, in Congress 76, 92 

reports of committees upon 92 

privileged 92 

to be read in full, if demanded 93 

how bills become laws 97 

private 97-99 

revenue 99, 10 1 

omnibus. 100 

engrossed 96 

enrolled 96 

Bribery 102-104 

Business, order of 3 1-39 

unfinished 32 

201 



202 INDEX. 

Page. 

Business, order of, in the Senate 34-36 

in the House 36-38 

in Parliament 38 

By-Laws 69, 70 

amendment of 69 

suspension of 70 

Call of the House 104 

Call to order, in organizing. 12 

in debate 105-107 

Censure 105-107 

examples of, in Congress 106 

Chairman, right to vote of 43 

temporary 13 

permanent 15, 40-42 

of Committee of the Whole 45 

of a committee 55 

of Senate committees 58 

of House committees 59 

Clerk of an assembly 47 

of the House of Representatives 49, 50 

of a committee 59, 60 

Cloture 107-110 

Committee of the whole house 63-65 

limit of debate in 63 

votes taken in 64 

in the Senate a (^^/rt-j-Z-committee 64, 65 

in British Parliament 65 

Committees, in organization I4> 53 

on rules, or order of business 14, 53 

on permanent organization 155 53 

on credentials 15, 53 

on resolutions 53, 54 

number and appointment of 54 

chairmanship of 55 

in vSenate 58 

in House 59 

general obj ects of 53 

business, or proceedings of 55""57 

quorum of 55, 62 

reports of 31, 32, 56, 57, 61 

minority reports 56, 57 



INDEX. 203 

Page. 

Committees, Senate standing 58 

House standing 59"^^ 

select 59, 60 

standing, in Parliament 61 

grand, in Parliament 62 

Committees of Conference 65-67 

Conference, committees of 65-67 

Congress, sessions of 21-25 

Consent, unanimous 72, 1 10 

Consideration, question of 123 

Contested elections 9, 10, 112 

Constitution 68-70 

amendment of 68 

Conventions, membership of 9 

Credentials 9, 10 

Day, legislative 22 

Debate 1 59-1 70 

limitations of 159-162 

must be relevant ' — 161 

questions not debatable 163 

priority in 164 

one-hour rule 165 

impersonality of 161, 162, 166 

violations of order in 167 

House rules of 165-167 

Senate rules of 167 

in the British Parliament 168 

in the French Chamber 170 

when out of order 33 

Disqualifications ii 

Doorkeeper 16, 51 

Elections 112 

of Representatives in Congress 113 

of Senators 114 

contested. .9, 10, 112 

Executive business 26-28 

Expulsion 114 

Expunging 116 

Files, custody of 74, 75 

Filibustering 117 

Gavel 45 



204 INDEX. 

Page. 
House, clerk of 49, 50 

Imprisonment, by legislative bodies 128-131 

Jefferson's Manual of Parliamentary Practice 71 

Joint rules. 77 

Joint sessions 29 

Journal of the Senate 34 

of the House 36 

Legislative day 22 

Mace, use and significance of 45 5 46 

Meeting, example of conduct of a 189-199 

Meetings 20 

Members, what constitutes 9 

of Congress, qualifications of 11 

of Parliament, qualifications of ii 

Minutes of meetings 3i>47 

Moderator 12, 40 

Morning hour 34, 36 

Motions, definiti n of 80 

second to - 81 

no second required in Congress 81 

putting the question on 81 

various disposals of..._ 81, 82 

subsidiary 83 

Nominations to office 13, 28 

Objection ill, 112 

Officers, functions of 40 

election of 13 

Order 119 

of the day 119 

regular order 119 

points of 120 

how decided in the Senate 43 

in the House 44 

Order of business (see Business) 3i> 39 

Orders, special 35, 37, 73, 119 

Organization 12, 19 

of the House of Representatives 17 

of the Senate 18 

of British Parliament 18 

Pairs 181 

Papers, reference and custody of 74 



INDEX. 205 

Page. 

Parliamentary Rules, object of - 7, 8, 79 

exemplitied in a public meeting 189-199 

Petitions 120 

Postponement, indefinite 82, 124 

Preamble 1 00 

President, temporary 13 

permanent 15, 40-42 

President of the Senate pro tempore 43 

vote of 183 

Presiding officer, vote of 183 

Previous question 121 

Private bills 97, 99 

Privilege, questions of 125 

must be public, not personal 126 

what are questions of, in Congress 132 

Procedure, order of 31, 39 

new rules of, in British Commons 107, no 

Proxies 90 

Question, putting the 133 

Questions 79-158 

Quorum, necessary in voting , 184 

of the House 185 

of the Senate ' . 186 

required to pass an act 187 

Recess 136 

Reconsideration 95, 137 

who may make motion to reconsider 139 

Reporters 143 

imprisonment of 130, 7iote. 

Reports of committees 31, 32, 56, 57, 61, 140 

of H< use committees 61 

Representatives, election and qualifications of. . ii, 114 

Resignation 144 

Resolution 147 

Riders , 85, 149 

Rules, parliamentary 68-78 

suspension of — ']0, 72 

standing, of the Senate 70, 72, 73 

standing, of the House 71 

of Senate and House, variations in 755 7^ 

Seats 151 



206 INDEX. 

• Page. 

Secret sessions 26-29 

Secretary, election of 13 

d uties of 47, 48 

of the Senate. 49 

Senate, Secretary of the 49, 50 

Senators, election and qualifications of 11. 114 

Sergeant-at-Arms 5 : , 52 

Sessions 20, 2 1 

annual, of Congress 23, 24 

of Congress, daily 21, 22 

Sunday 22 

secret or executive •. 26-29 

of Congress, special or extraordinary 25 

of Parliament , 25 

Sittings 20, 2 1 

Speaker of the House, election of 17 

functions of 44 

pro tempore 45 

right of, to vote 44, 184 

of the House of Commons 19, 46 

of the House of Lords 46 

Special orders 35. 37» 73» "9 

in the Senate - 35, 73 

in the House 37, 73 

Speeches, when out of order 33 

Standing committees, in Senate 58 

in House 59"'6i 

in Parliament 62 

Subsidiary motions 83 

Substitute 84, 87, 152 

Sunday sessions 22 

Table, motion to lay on the 124, 153 

business on the Speaker's 154 

Treasurer 50 

Unanimous consent 72, no 

Unfinished business 32 

Vacancy 145 

Veto..... 155 

Vice-President, of an assembly 16,42 

of the United States 43 

vote of 183 



INDEX. 207 

Page. 

Votes 171, 188 

various methotls of voting 171 

when two thirds vote i"e([uired.. ^ 174 

Senate rules for voting 1 75 

House rules for voting 1 76 

voting viva voce 171? 176 

voting l3y rising 172 

vote by tellers. 172, 176, 177 

voting by ballot 1 72, i86 

voting by yeas and nays 172, 179-18 1 

change of a vote - . 1 80 

excuse from voting 182 

quorum in voting 184 

voting in Parliament 177 

in the French Chambers 178 

number of, required to pass a measure 187 

pairs in voting 181 

Whole, committee of the 63-65 

Withdrawal 156 

Witnesses, imprisonment of 130, note. 

recusant 128, 131 

Writ 157 



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